A Parent's Guide

Kindergarten teachers are often insecure about how to deal with children growing up with a family language that differs from the school language. There is a widespread assumption that these children are at risk of failing their school career later on and that they all need intensive language training as soon as possible. In some countries, programs exist to provide early language training, especially for migrant children, as they are suspected to need it the most. However, the assumption has been proven to be too short-sighted, and the programs are often found not to work as well as expected. The risk for children with a family language other than the school language to fail their school career rises only if other factors add up as well (like missing language support at home, missing access to books, and when parents have less experience with education and schooling in general).

However, when there is little or no experience with the school language at the time children have to enter the school system, they may struggle to catch up with the content and the instructions that other children may easily understand and follow simply because they already know the school language. Children can profit greatly from an early immersion into school language by peers and professionals, preferably already done at preschool age. It's nothing less than a matter of future equality and equity to aim for similar starting conditions when children enter the school system.

Immersion processes work better when families and children feel welcome, seen and respected with all their assets and resources, including their family language. The family language is part of their social, cultural and language identity. It should not be perceived as less valuable than the school language. Ignoring or even forbidding the family language, e.g., in kindergarten in favour of immersion into school language, often leads to unintended outcomes. It may cause a feeling of rejection for the child. This may negatively affect the child's self-perception and motivation to engage further with, e.g., more languages, like the school language.

In brief, embracing family language and supporting school language mastery should be part of the daily routine in kindergarten to ensure the best possible start in the school system for all children.

How can a good balance between family and school language be achieved in kindergarten?

Kindergarten teachers may ask themselves how they can support all the languages in kindergarten, especially when they master the school language but are not familiar with any of the family languages the children are familiar with. It may help here to keep in mind that supporting all children with all their resources means not only fostering the school language (via using a rich vocabulary and language input in an elaborated way). Support also means valuing each child's social, cultural and language identity, including the respective family language.

Getting an overview of the existing languages in the institution

For this purpose, an overview of which family language is spoken in which household may be the first step to take. This sounds simple, but there may be some things that need to be clarified. The assumption that a family that, for example, migrated from Italy to Slovenia will have Italian as a family language may not be correct. It could be Slovenian, Japanese or any other language. Furthermore, a non-migrant family may speak another language different from the school language at home. Professionals could ask themselves:

• Do I know every family language of every child under my care?
• Do I know if the child understands and speaks every family language used at home?
• Do I know which family member talks to the child in which language?
• Do I know how the child responds when addressed in one language?
  • For example, is the child answering in the same language they are being addressed in or in another?
  • For example, can the parents say something about how many words and expressions their child uses in the family language on a daily basis?
• Do I know if parents are worried when their child answers in a different language than the one used by the person addressing the child?
  • How do parents react, then?
• Etc…

Professionals should determine which family language is used at home instead of pre-assuming. However, some families may perceive such direct questions as rude, the issue too private to share, or even offending. Professionals should be aware of this possibility and emphasise to the parents that they want to create a learning environment where each child's cultural identity and family language are valued and represented equally. In addition, professionals can point out that the knowledge about how a child gets along with the family (and school) language may help them support both the family language and school language for each child individually. Professionals can also point out that it is done for the purpose of later success in school.

A child who answers correctly but not in the language in which the question was asked shows that the request was understood (sometimes instead shown through correct reactions rather than spoken answers). The child could be considered translanguaging or still feel uncomfortable using the school language. A professional may support the child in such a situation by adding words and expressions to complete or repeat the child's answer / accompanying the child's reaction with words in the school language without forcing the child to use that language (corrective feedback and elaboration).

It could also be that the child does not use the necessary articles or the correct prepositions in the school language because there are no articles or because there are different prepositions in the family language. These are examples of possible reasons for a certain way of starting to speak the school language. Suppose the professional is aware of the specific family language the child is used to. In that case, the professional can focus on such issues and help emphasise, e.g., the use of articles and prepositions in the school language.

However, suppose children need help understanding and/or producing the family and school language simultaneously. In that case, professionals should also be aware of this as soon as possible and introduce language training or even diagnostics for language impairment.

Thus, professionals must be aware of all the steps children take to become competent language users in any language (see also Chapters 1 and 2). It is also essential for professionals and parents to remember that every child has their own pace regarding language development and acquisition (see Chapter 1). One child will be faster, and one will be slower, but there is generally no need to worry about it.

Some strategies and methods to support the family language in the institution

One strategy can be to provide important information to parents in every family language on procedures and events taking place in the institution during the year. This serves the purpose of reducing misunderstandings caused by insufficient communication due to a potential language barrier. Parents may feel more included and may participate more when they fully understand what happens at the place their child attends. Providing information in many languages and the chance to read announcements in different languages represents an openness towards the diversity of languages and cultures. It can be regarded as a step toward more inclusion. Sometimes, it might even be helpful to include someone who can interpret to facilitate communication even more.

In addition, welcoming sentences written on posters or drawings of children heighten the visibility of the whole treasure of languages within the institution. Every family language may be displayed, and families and children can find bits of their family language in the institution. It supports children's literacy implicitly because children can see words written in their family language, ask questions about them, and explore them with their family or professionals. Children may also now and then be greeted in a different family language to show and praise the many languages in the institution. This way, children can listen to their family language from time to time outside their home.

Projects like translating children's books to create a multilingual library or recording songs and writing down the lyrics can be done with the help of families. This may enhance the effect of an inclusive approach to language support, and it values each family language. This way, a child's family language also becomes accessible to other children and families, which in turn may facilitate contact between families and the institution as well as contacts between the families. This way, prejudices may be reduced. Children could find their family language already represented when they enter the institution for the first time, which may be comforting.

Open questions about the names of specific objects in languages other than the school language allow all children to make their family language visible in the institution. Simultaneously, the language skills in the school language may also profit through evolving conversations in such situations. However, it is important not to force children to use their family language in front of others. Bringing the family language into the institution should be voluntary and considered positive. It is better to ask a question like "Do any of you know the word for butterfly in another language?" than to ask specific children ", Please tell us, how would you say butterfly in your language?". Such questions discriminate and make the child think that they differ from the rest of the group; they create a "me" and "them" or "we" and "the others".

Many more creative ways exist to value each child's family language. Everything that shows genuine interest and appreciation of this aspect of a child's identity and family can be considered support.

Some strategies and methods to particularly support the school language in the institution

Kindergarten teachers are prepared to provide learning opportunities for all children to get immersed in the school language. According to national regulations for such institutions, it's part of their responsibility. Language training sessions several times a week are one approach to promoting language development. Enriching the children's vocabulary and language comprehension and production via a lot of elaborated authentic conversations on topics children are willing to participate in on a daily basis is another approach to fulfilling this responsibility. Staying interested and inquiring about more details within meaningful conversations motivates children to use more elaborate words and grammatical structures without being explicitly taught new words in the school language. Children thereby imitate their language role models, namely the professionals or their peers. Professionals are perceived and perceive themselves as language models for the school language. They watch out for what kind of words and content they use daily to enlarge the children's vocabulary and grammar skills. Children can play with the language and explore it with curiosity, especially when professionals use:

• open questions (e.g. What? Who? How? When?)
• praise when a child says something correctly.
• the beginning of a sentence as a starting point for the child to finish it, as to evolve a story on a past or future event.
• new words or sentences to a child's verbal contribution as an additive to implicitly enrich their vocabulary and build up a story with the child as a co-storyteller.
• corrective feedback.
• ...

These strategies involve a child-centred approach focusing on the child's interests, ideas, experiences and emotions. However, some children are not used to articulating their opinions, needs and wishes within a conversation. Asking these children for their individual opinions on a specific topic may sound weird and inappropriate to them. They would instead respond to questions that address the peer's or family's interests, experiences, or needs. Professionals should, therefore, stay attentive so as not to rashly misinterpret a child's non-response or irritation when asked a child-centred question. More group-centred questions may help the child to contribute more, e.g. "How was the weekend with your family? What did you all do?" instead of "What did you do on the weekend?". Every situation can be used to support language promotion, for example, a future visit to the zoo or a past birthday party that can be retold together. Furthermore, any professional or child activity can be accompanied by describing what is happening using the school language. Any experience or challenge of the child is a suitable context to elaborate on and to get into a meaningful conversation that can be enriched effortlessly with new vocabulary or grammar structures. This way, the professionals provide language promotion and training without explicitly telling the children what they are learning.

Besides conversations on present, past or future events and retelling and evolving stories together, professionals can also use media to foster language competencies. Dialogic reading is one strategy that can promote both the school and family languages. Broadening the storyline of a book and integrating associated topics while discussing them with the child creates a situation of language promotion within a meaningful conversation. This is done while reading with and not only to children. Professionals may promote the school language in such a way. Still, it is also suitable for promoting the family language if families are involved in the actual reading and discussing the story with groups of children. This way, all languages are valued, and families may feel competent in this environment.

Child

Can you read it, please, the book?

Dad

Sure, let's sit down and we read it together, ok?

Dad

… And the fox tried to climb the tree … What happened then? What do you think?

Child

Oh, the fox falls, that hurts… like me today…

Dad

What happened to you today, son?

Child

Mean Mary, pushed and I falled down.

Dad

Really? You fell? Did that hurt a lot? What happened then?

Child

Got this, from Mom!

Dad

Ah, so you could still run to Mom with your knee hurting? You managed just fine then and with the plaster it should heal fast… What do think should the fox do now?

Child

Go to his mom?

Dad

And if Mom is not close by? Remember, he went on a holiday to visit his friends in the forest behind the big Mountain.

Child

The doctor, the fox needs a plaster!

Dad

You are right son, the fox needs a plaster. Oh look, this looks like a…

Child

Hospital!!!!

Dad

Yes, a hospital for animals, where all the foxes, bears, and … Who else can go there??…

With little effort, the child has many more words to include in his vocabulary by listening to his dad. The next time they read this book, they may find another way and topic to make the reading experience more interactive and dialogical.

Furthermore, the common and different features of languages can be discussed by groups of children when they listen to bilingual stories, rhymes or songs. Little games like "Broken Telephone" may awaken the curiosity for sounds and meanings of words even more.

Playing "Broken Telephone” can be fun and challenging at the same time. When children play “Broken Telephone”, the first one whispers a word or a sentence in one language into the ear of the second child, who in turn should repeat the word or sentence into the third child’s ear, still whispering. This process continues until every child participating in the game had a chance to hear the word or sentence. The last child repeats it loudly for everyone. The game aims to repeat the word or sentence used at the beginning correctly until the end. Typically, during the process, some syllables or words are misunderstood, and the resulting word or sentence that everyone can hear at the end is not the same anymore as the word or sentence whispered at the beginning. A discussion can evolve on what was understood at which stage, there can be a discussion on the potential meaning of an unknown word, words can be explained, and meanings in the school and family language of the children can be shared with all. Even discussions on similar sounding words or opposites can playfully be started with the children.

In such a way, every child may experience the feeling of not knowing a language but trying to make sense of what one is listening to. This invites children to guess the content together, and the professional may support the guessing process (e.g., through sustained shared thinking). All children may enlarge their vocabulary by listening and talking using the school language. Audiobooks or educational apps can also playfully foster the school language. They can be considered as a supplement to non-digital ways and media to promote language development and learning.

Professionals should remember that they may support all children's language development with these strategies and games. Still, every child will have their own pace while learning. This is normal, and the child should not be pressured during the process. As long as no physical or mental impairment influencing language development is involved, professionals shouldn't be impatient; instead, they should support children who might have a slower pace than others.

Professionals may address their own attitudes or sometimes insecurities towards the use of family language in early childhood educational institutions in that process. Sometimes, not understanding the conversation between two children speaking the same family language may be irritating. Professionals may feel a loss of control. They can ask themselves what exactly disturbs them when they listen to a family language they don't understand or why they have preferences for some languages and not others. The prestige of a specific family language may influence the way professionals address this family language in their daily routines. This usually happens unconsciously. Professionals should be aware that this can happen and use methods, like supervision and intervision to address it. If professionals stay open and self-reflective and perceive themselves as constantly learning individuals, they can profit from what children - as experts of their family language - may contribute to different conversations. So, being a professional could also mean being the one to be taught something new.