ABSTRACT
During each working day teaching assistants engage in a range of different activities to support children’s learning. Bilingual teaching assistants engage in many similar activities. However, in addition they draw on and use their language expertise and knowledge and understanding of other cultures to support bilingual children and their parents’ knowledge and understanding of the culture and working practices of schools and settings and children’s learning. They also strive to support practitioners in developing their knowledge and understanding of the cultures and practices of the families and communities children belong to. In this way they act as mediators of learning and understanding, facilitating communication and knowledge exchange, building bridges and relationships. The extent to which they can do this varies from setting to setting and is influenced by a setting’s approach to children’s bilingualism and the extent to which the setting considers itself a learning community. In this chapter we consider the reasons for supporting children’s bilingualism and the roles of bilingual staff and draw on data from small-scale research projects which involved interviews with bilingual practitioners and the filming of ‘a day in the life’ of one assistant and talking to her about her role.
