This book deals with early multilingual acquisition from a holistic, dynamic, and multilingual perspective. It focuses on the analysis of pragmatic awareness and language attitudes of consecutive multilingual children in relation to other variables, such as the linguistic model or the age factor. This volume makes an important contribution to the field, providing evidence for the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism proposed by Herdina and Jessner.

This book focuses on ethical and methodological issues faced by researchers working with young language learners in formal school contexts. It uncovers and explicitly discusses a range of ethical dilemmas, challenges and experiences that researchers have encountered and grappled with, in studies of all kinds from large scale, experimental studies to ethnographic studies focused on just a handful of children. The chapters are written by researchers working with children in different classroom contexts around the world and highlight how ethical dilemmas and tensions take on a complex form in child-focused research, requiring researchers to pay particular attention to the social and cultural norms of the different communities within which children are educated as well as their school-based experiences. The book comprises three sections, with the first part focused on involving children as active participants in research; part two on ethical challenges in multilingual contexts and part three on links between teacher education and researching children. The book includes a critical discussion of the opportunities and challenges associated with applying the UNCRC (1989) document in second language research with children which will be of use to any researcher working in this area.

Have you ever been told that raising your child to speak multiple languages will harm their development? Are teachers or other professionals suspicious of your efforts? Are you sometimes unsure if you are helping your child’s language development, or are you uncertain where to start? It is increasingly recognised among researchers that, far from harming a child’s development, being exposed to multiple languages from birth or early childhood can result in linguistic, creative and social advantages. The authors, all multilinguals themselves, parents of multilingual children, and researchers on language and multilingualism, aim to provide advice and inspiration for multilingual families across the world. The latest research on multilingualism and the authors’ own experiences are used to provide a friendly, accessible guide to raising and nurturing happy multilingual children.

Multilingualism in the Early Years is a highly accessible text that examines the political, theoretical, ideological and practical issues involved in the education of children speaking two or more languages. Drawing on current research and thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of being multilingual, Smidt uses powerful case studies to reveal how language or languages are acquired. She explores language in terms of who shares it, its relationship to class, culture, power, identity and thinking, and its fascinating role as it moves from the personal to the public and political. More specifically the book studies: what it means to be bilingual through an analysis of the language histories submitted by a range of people; how language/s define people; a brief history of minority education in the UK; how practitioners and teachers can best support all young children as learners whilst they continue to use their first languages and remain part of and partners in their communities and cultures; being bilingual: an advantage or a disadvantage? the impact of multilingualism on children’s educational and life chances. Multilingualism in the Early Years is a really useful text for practitioners working with multilingual children, as well as any student undertaking courses in early childhood education.

This book will develop readers' understanding of children are being taught a foreign language.

This book presents a new extended framework for the study of early multicompetence. It proposes a concept of multilingual competences as a valuable educational target, and a view of the multilingual learner as a competent language user. The thematic focus is on multilingual skill development in primary schoolers in the trilingual province of South Tyrol, northern Italy. A wide range of topics pertaining to multicompetence building and the special affordances of multilingual pedagogy are explored. Key concepts like language proficiency, native-speakerism, or monolingual classroom bias are subjected to critical analysis.

Shortlisted for the Nasen Book that supports SEN and Disability Issues Award 2008 Are children who are exposed to more than one language from birth at an advantage or a disadvantage when starting school? Supporting Multilingual Learners in the Early Years examines the theoretical, ideological and practical issues involved in the education of children speaking two or more languages coming to settings which are predominantly monolingual. The book examines current research and thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of being multilingual and tackles complex topics such as: what being multilingual implies in terms of prior learning and why this matters in education the importance of respect for diversity and encouraging children to be proud of their language and culture practical ways to help young children acquire English ways of working with parents who themselves have little or no English the differences and difficulties involved in a child learning an additional language so early on in their lives strategies for exploring the learning of multilingual learners and a review of the resources and activities that could help. Sandra Smidt views multilingualism as a cognitive advantage and shows how Early Years practitioners can use interactive styles of learning to focus on the benefit that the many cultures and languages in the classroom can bring to children’s learning and development. Written in a highly accessible tone, this book offers practitioners a mix of practical case studies and examples in which theory is embedded and its importance explained. Students of early childhood education will also appreciate the author's carefully structured approach to the topic, as she includes summary boxes, glossaries and points for reflection in each chapter.