ABSTRACT

We are fortunate to be able to draw upon many detailed examples of young monolingual children as they set about learning at home. We are often struck by the skills these children display as they participate in story-reading, writing or socio-dramatic play with their parents. Generally, these activities are recognisable in the experience of our own families; we repeat them with our younger siblings, our children or grandchildren. Yet we have few similar examples of the learning taking place in the lives of young children whose home language and literacy practices might be very different from those represented in school. In this collection of case studies, readers are invited into the worlds of eleven such children. Ten of the children are emergent bilinguals; the eleventh is a monolingual child who is shortly to begin a Jewish school in London. Each study reveals the wealth of knowledge of the children, as well as the skills and patience of their 'teachers' at home and in the community. The home 'teachers' are siblings, grandparents, parents, community class teachers, friends, films and videos. Learning about cultural and linguistic differences is not an easy task for it involves admitting what one does not know. I hope that this book will inspire early years educators everywhere to take the courage to go into the communities to find out. Only in this way can we show all our families the respect they deserve.