ABSTRACT
A principal aim of education in every country is to establish parameters within which teachers carry out their professional role, children learn and parents support their children's learning. This chapter contrasts the home and school learning of these two sisters, Nazma and Naseem, and discusses ways in which the parameters might be widened to enable children at an early stage in their learning of an additional language to achieve as well as those children whose language and experience conform more closely to what is expected. This chapter examines the experience of Nazma and Naseem in the context of the expectations in classroom settings, current guidance for nursery practice, and research findings. In Britain there has been very little research into bilingual education and young bilingual children, except for the Mother Tongue English Teaching (MOTET) project. Naseem and Nazma highlight the challenges facing all those involved in the educational provision for children learning English as an additional language in Britain.
