ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses primarily on TEYL in bi/multilingual contexts, i.e., English as Additional Language (EAL) contexts. These contexts include not only English-dominant countries but often also postcolonial settings where English is used as medium of instruction and assessment for young learners whose most familiar language is known to be other than English.
The chapter presents and challenges the notion of equal competence in multilingual children’s languages and the language separation approach in multilingual education: both serve to reproduce the deficit view of bi/multilingual children as a problem and set up language as bounded entities competing with each other for power and status. Socially and critically informed understandings of bi/multilingualism in the recent decade have questioned such issues as monolingual bias and hierarchical bi/multilingualism. The authors go on to highlight the multilingual turn in scholarship, where children’s multilingual repertoire is considered a resource in language learning. They share examples of translanguaging pedagogies enacted in various TEYL contexts and recommend a variety of pedagogic practices that encourage children to engage with their multilingual semiotic resources. The chapter ends with invitations for further research into developing young learners’ competence in additional languages while validating their linguistic practices for equitable access to learning opportunities.
