Practitioners’ language-supporting strategies in multilingual ECE institutions in Luxembourg

Abstract

Multilingual education is mandatory in early childhood education in several European countries. Scholars working in first, second and foreign language learning have shown the effectiveness of interaction-promoting and language-modelling strategies for language development. In addition, teachers in bilingual contexts have been translanguaging to foster language learning. To this day, few research studies have examined these strategies in combination and their deployment in multilingual contexts. The present study takes place in multilingual Luxembourg where 64% of the four-year-olds do not speak Luxembourgish. It focuses on three practitioners who took part in a professional development course on multilingual pedagogies and presents their languagesupporting strategies as well as their translanguaging practices. The findings show that the practitioners use a range of strategies in Luxembourgish, French and home languages, in daily conversations, routines and language and literacy activities to address children's linguistic needs.

Performative Translanguaging in a Monolithic Classroom: Decolonizing and Liberating Language Practices of Linguistically Minoritized Children

“…There is increasing scholarly attention on translanguaging practices and pedagogies, and they often focus on translanguaging as an alternative or supplementary way of expression employed by linguistically minoritized children. Research has extensively explored the translanguaging practices of young children, emphasizing its adaptable use across two or more languages Kirsch & Mortini, 2023), connectedness to play, stories, and beyond text (Seltzer et al, 2020), and pedagogical possibilities (Gort & Ponier, 2013;Kirsch, 2021). This perspective of translanguaging is commonly associated with individuals whose native languages are marginalized (Vogel & García, 2017), and scholarly discourse often portrays translanguaging as an embodiment of these children's linguistic practices and identities.…”

Shaping participation

“…An open and supportive attitude in ECEC towards the emergent multilingual child's family language(s) plays a central role in children's well-being as well as their language development, both for sequential and simultaneous bi/multilingualism (De Houwer, 2015). In times where many ECEC facilities like Little Sprouts (NL) and Good Shepherd (DE) are attended by multilingual toddlers, it is crucial that teachers are familiar with basic theory on multilingual development as well as language-supportive strategies (Kirsch, 2021). However, this does not always seem to be the case.…”