ABSTRACT
Teachers of young children find their students are growing in multilingual environments. As they plan instruction, they need to meet the diverse needs of students who, despite English not being their native or home language, are expected to succeed academically in English. Researchers have been looking at what works best to enhance the schooling success of multilingual students for decades. Research shows that the majority of Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers are generally knowledgeable about Second Language learning and relevant bilingualism pedagogies. Throughout any ECE curriculum, teachers are likely to include numerous opportunities for children to come in contact and join in with nursery rhymes and word-play activities. Young English learners make giant leaps in language learning when they are immersed in an environment that respects their diverse linguistic repertoires and scaffolds their growth in the different kinds of register that students need to conquer in order to be successful communicators in the different contexts in which they participate.
