Young multilingual children learning:

at home and at school

DR ROSE DRURY, THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Children’s, practitioners’ and families’ experiences of early years care and education

October 30 & 31, 2015, TACTYC, Birmingham

This presentation aims to:explore:• multilingual children’s, practitioners’ and families’

experiences of early years care and education;• multilingual children’s, parents’ and practitioners’ ‘funds of

knowledge’.

challenge:• current national policy-driven terminology and deficit models

in relation to multilingualism.

reveal:• the remarkable skills of young multilingual children.• the growing importance of transnationalism and super-

diversity. • the silencing of multilingualism in early years

settings.

Outline:

1. Nazma

2. Context and terminology

3. Research study 1

4. Research study 2

5. Samia

6. Ways ahead

Nazma: a child’s perspective

Drury, R (2007) Young bilingual learners: at home and school. Trentham

Nazma at homeNazma:

• enjoys dressing-up and role play activities with siblings, sorting clothes and helping prepare and cook food with her mother.

• talks in her mother tongue, Pahari, with all members of her family.

• hears her older siblings talking in English and looks at the school reading books they bring home.

• listens to her mother and grandmother telling stories from their childhood.

• watches her older siblings preparing for Qur’anic classes, reciting verses in Arabic and older members of family reading Holy Qur’an.

Nazma: a mother’s perspective

‘I don’t know about school, but the teachers know how to help my daughter.

Nazma: a teacher’s perspective

• ‘Nazma is extremely reluctant to communicate in English. She understands most instructions given to her but obstinately refuses to say anything. Occasionally, she will say a whole sentence but soon becomes silent again.’

• ‘She is refusing to speak, knowing it is required of her … I expected her to verbalise more, language is taking a long time to come out.’

Funds of Knowledge

Luis Moll (et al) Funds of Knowledge

Socio-cultural perspectives – young children as expert learners and as expert language learners

Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Collins, F., Powell, S. & Drury, R. (2015) Researching Literacy Lives: Building Communities between home and school. London: Routledge.

Super-diversity

• Vertovec (2009) – super-diversity and a recognition of the complexities of families’ transnational identities

• ‘Rather than working with homogeneity, stability and boundedness as the starting assumptions, mobility, mixing, political dynamics and historical embedding are now central concerns in the study of languages, language groups and communication’

(Blommaert and Rampton, 2011, p. 3)

Context

• More than a million children aged 5-16 in UK schools - more than 360 languages spoken. (www.naldic.org.uk)

• Diversity of languages includes arrivals from the European Union, refugee and asylum seekers and children from long-settled minority ethnic communities.

Historical context • 1966 Section 11 of the Local Government Act funded

additional teachers to help ‘immigrants from the new Commonwealth’ to ‘overcome disadvantage’ brought about by differences of language or culture. ‘ESL children’ withdrawn from mainstream classrooms.

• 1985 The Swann report (Department for Education and Science) – the right of bilingual learners to be included in the mainstream.

• 1993 Section 11 extended to include all minority ethnic pupils

• From 1990s – centralised, monolingual national educational policy -English as an additional language (EAL)

Early Years Foundation Stage, 20141.7 ‘For children whose home language is not English,

providers must take reasonable steps to provide opportunities for children to develop and use their home language in play and learning, supporting their language development at home. Providers must also ensure that children have sufficient opportunities to learn and reach a good standard in English language during the EYFS, ensuring children are ready to benefit from the opportunities available to them when they begin Year 1.’ (DFE, 2014, p.9)

EYFS continued

‘When assessing communication, language and literacy skills, practitioners must assess the children’s skills in English. If a child does not have a strong grasp of English language, practitioners must explore the child’s skills in the home language with parents and/or carers, to establish whether there is cause for concern about language delay.’ (DFE, 2014, p.9)

Policy concerns• Unfounded implication that language delay is

a cause for concern.

• Conflicting discourses:

- Encouraging and supporting mother tongue;

- Ensuring that all children reach a good standard in English.

A Day in the Life of a Bilingual Practitioner

Robertson, L.H., Drury, R. & Cable, C. (2014) Silencing bilingualism: a day in the life of a bilingual practitioner. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Vol. 17, No. 5, 610-623.

Project aims

• 2 urban early years classrooms in England

• To explore the ways in which 2 bilingual practitioners, Razia and Sadiye, supported the learning of 3-4 year-old multilingual children, their parents and teachers

The practitioners - Razia • Speaks, reads and writes Pahari, Urdu and English• Speaks Punjabi and Hindi• Educated in Pakistan• Has always worked in the early

years• Worked as a bilingual practitioner

for about 18 years• Currently works in two schools• Has worked in school where we filmed for 18 years• Lives locally

The practitioners - Sadiye

• Speaks and writes English• Speaks Cypriot Turkish• Educated in UK• Worked as a nursery nurse

for about 16 years• Has always worked in the

early years• Has always worked in school

where we filmed• Lives locally

Hazal’s morning

DVD clip – Hazal’s morning

The ‘Silent Period’ – what do we understand of the role of ‘silence’ in young bilingual children’s early learning?

Drury, R. (2013) How silent is the ‘Silent Period’ for young bilinguals in early years settings in England? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3, 380-391.

What languages do children use in school?

• During 5 hours of filming in two schools, generally children did not speak in mother tongue.

• But mother tongue translation very valuable; parents use it often with both Razia and Sadiye.

In Razia’s schoolRazia uses mother tongue to interpret whole class talk to

individual children (mainly in a whisper).

She uses mother tongue during activities such as playdough, but children respond in English.

Twice one word labels were spoken when requested by Razia:• In the home corner – ‘choori’ – knife (in Urdu)• In a small group phonics game – ‘bunda’ – monkey (in

Urdu)

In Sadiye’s schoolThroughout the day Sadiye uses mother tongue to

interpret whole class talk to individual children and groups of children, switching quickly between English and Turkish (using some Kurdish, too) .

She translates and sings and comments and instructs in mother tongue frequently:• Some older and more confident children respond in

English. No evidence of children using Turkish.• Some younger and less confident respond non-

verbally by smiling or nodding.

Loss of first language

‘They’re losing everything. So if you had a little input of their first

language, I think that would be a benefit for everybody; parents,

families, schools and children because the more languages they

have, I think the mindset is opening up to languages, not closing

so lots of languages are, we are losing languages every day

almost. Now all the children who’ve been through my time at this

school, not many of them are reading or writing their first

language at all.’

Razia

Ethnography of an early years teacher – super-diversity in a London nursery class

To document ways and times when a nursery teacher and her multilingual practitioners collaborate to support multilingual children and their families in a nursery class in one year.

Robertson, L.H. & Drury, R. (2014) (Forthcoming)

Methodology & data gathering

• Ethnographic case study of life in a London nursery in one year

• Focus group meetings with teachers, mothers, grandmothers, bilingual practitioners

• Interviews in nursery teacher, school documentation and assessment profiles.

The Nursery Teacher

• Mary has worked in the school for 26 years

• 2 Teaching Assistants in the nursery – Zara (Arabic and Farsi speaker and Sevgi (Turkish speaker) and a nursery nurse, Emily (works in the morning session)

Mary’s nursery class

•Total number of children in nursery class - 41 - 29 bilingual and 12 with English as their mother tongue•15 Mother tongues spoken by children in the nursery

Super-diversity: some examples

Reynie’s family returns to Sierra Leone for celebrations and funerals. Father is in Sierra Leone. Mother is a diplomat so will be posted somewhere else soon. Grandmother looks after Reynie, and Skypes with her adopted children in Sierra Leone every day.

Orianna’s parents are Polish. Father came first, then mother. Now Orianna’s maternal grandmother looks after her for 6 months whilst the parents go to work. Then she goes back and the paternal grandmother comes for 6 months. Then they swap again.

Samia’s remarkable skills

‘Samia didn’t speak today. She sometimes says one or two words’

(Samia’s nursery teacher)

Samia & Sadaqat play school[Samia: 4 years old, Sadaqat: 2 years old][Pahari in italics]

1. Samia: Sadaqat, stand upwe're not having group time nowgroup timeyou can play, Sadaqat

5. shall we play something?you want to do painting?[noise from Sadaqat]O.K. get your waterlet's get a water

let's get a waterlet's get a paperbaby didn't cryhurry up (whispering)you want paper

and put in the painting do that and what are you choose

colour Black

Sadaqat: back20.Samia: no, there's a black

did you finish it?paintingyou make itSadaqat, do it with this finger

25. do it like this, do it like thatwashwhich colour are you going to choosenext thingdon't do it, Sadaqat

30. orange satsumaI'm doing it satsuma colour(clapping, knocking)you are having your...(crying)

35. like it?Sadaqat: mummy [calling to mother]

[Drury, 2007, p.27-28]

Ways ahead: 1Multilingual children’s funds of knowledge offer a strong basis for learning, and practitioners need to:

•Recognise and build upon bilingual parents’ and practitioners’ funds of knowledge to open up new ways of working with children. •Create opportunities for bilingual staff to mediate between home and school and to build on children’s ‘funds of knowledge’ as they enter the setting.

Ways ahead: 2

Recognising multilingual children as active learners, practitioners need to:

•Understand the role of ‘silence’ in young children’s early learning in the context of home and school.•Explicitly encourage multilingualism in early years settings.

References• Blommaert, J. and Rampton, B. (2011) Language and Superdiversity. UNESCO:

Social and Human Sciences, 13 (2), 1-21• Cremin, T., Mottram, M., Collins, F. M., Powell, S. & Drury, R. (2015) Researching

Literacy Lives building communities between home and school. London: Routledge.

• DFE (Department for Education) (2014.) Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. London: Department for Education.

• Drury, R. (2013) How Silent is the ‘Silent Period’ for young bilinguals in early years settings in England? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3, 380-391.

• Drury, R. (2007) Young bilingual learners: at home and school. Trentham• Gregory, E., Long, S. and Volk, D. (2004) Many Pathways to Literacy. London:

RoutledgeFalmer.• Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D. and Gonzalez N. (1992) Funds of Knowledge for

Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31: 132-141.

• Robertson, L. H. (2004) Multilingual flexibility and literacy learning in an Urdu community school. In Gregory, E., Long, S. and Volk, D. (2004) Many Pathways to Literacy. London: Routledge Falmer.

• Vertovec, S. (2009) Transnationalism. London: Routledge.