Spanish is the second most common language among US children aged 5-17, with 26.8% speaking it at home. To foster cultural understanding and promote positive relationships, it's crucial to introduce young children to different languages and cultures. Preschool language education can cultivate respect and empathy, building more inclusive…

As part of a large study aiming to understand how kindergarten children in Colombia used translanguaging during independent play, Paula (the teacher) along with Dr. Moses (lead researcher) co-designed a 6-week play-based intervention that included a variety of learning experiences such as partner reading, small-group reading, and supported play,…

Teachers in English-medium classrooms can support students' translingual composing by inviting students to write using all their language resources. However, students in these contexts often express hesitancy about their ability to spell in languages beyond English. This article describes support strategies teachers can use to scaffold students'…

As K-5 dual language programs gain popularity in the United States, language teaching, however, often still prioritizes discrete and decontextualized learning that is not built on students' interests and experiences or their multilingual and multimodal resources. This article reports on a classroom-based ethnographic case study and illustrates how…

This article puts forth a multilingual perspective on reading to counter the prevailing monolingualism that dominates reading instruction. First, it brings theories together to develop a cohesive understanding of teaching reading with emergent bilinguals at the center. Second, it illuminates ways educators can design reading instruction, which is…

Reanna, Janet, and Jaimyka are early childhood educators who are recent graduates of the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Diploma program in Aurora College in the Northwest Territories of Canada. They used storytelling and related follow-up activities to teach their Indigenous language, Tlicho, in their early childhood field placements in…

When working with bilingual readers, teaching for equity means building on students' linguistic strengths. To do so, we must provide intentionally designed holistic literacy instruction that encourages students to use their full literacy and linguistic repertoire. This article describes an asset-oriented approach called "Transliteracy"…

In here, I provide a description of a multiliteracies elementary classroom's ecology according to how an elementary bilingual teacher and bilingual language learners in her classroom interact and engage with traditional (linguistic) and alternative (multimodal) texts in language arts. This multiliteracies classroom ecology shows their dynamic…

This article examines findings from an umbrella review of 95 systematic reviews and meta-analyses on effective reading instruction. The analysis highlights that reading is a multifaceted process, requiring the integration of key components such as decoding, comprehension, fluency, and motivation. The review underscores the importance of early…

In this article, the authors describe an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher's attempt to provide more personalized support for her elementary English learners (ELs) during remote learning. The authors provide an in-depth description of using voice recorders, a low-tech and inexpensive device, to mitigate barriers and promote English…

This teaching tip describes a translanguaging read-aloud protocol. In a translanguaging read-aloud, teachers and students interact with a text (either a bilingual text or a monolingual one) in multiple languages. Teachers plan explanations, questions, and other interactions in multiple languages to amplify and clarify the text. Teachers can adapt…

In this article we identify ways to scaffold content-specific instruction to support your multilingual learners' academic language development. With the definition that academic language compromises of vocabulary, linguistic functions, and syntax, we share ways to integrate three instructional practices across your instruction. These practices…

Because dual-language books (DLBs) print the entire text in two languages nearby on the page, they have great potential for supporting children's biliteracy development by providing contexts to compare/contrast languages. However, little is known about how children read DLBs independently and how they may/may not use such characteristics to…

Families play a critical role in promoting students' literacy development. Family literacy practices refer to oral, written, and reading strategies that impart cultural traditions and knowledge of the world and that occur in the dominant or native language of a family. It is especially important for educators to understand and build upon such…

Music experience during early childhood can promote language and literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness, vocabulary, and turntaking and self-regulation skills useful for communication more broadly. Incorporating music activities into the early childhood classroom can be particularly useful for Dual Language Learners' (DLLs) language…