Teaching English as a foreign language in early years has become prevalent in response to contemporary trends of English as a global language. However, early childhood teachers may face challenges that would prevent children from achieving success in learning English in different educational contexts. This study explored the challenges that…

This article discusses a research study that involves five preschool teachers working in linguistically diverse classrooms. It focuses on how these teachers' beliefs regarding language teaching and learning have emerged from their own experiences, and how they affect their understanding of their work. The study draws on the concept of…

Translingual pedagogies have been proposed and implemented to respond to the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in today's classrooms. However, the findings of translingual pedagogies on English as an additional language (EAL) writing vary from facilitating to undermining teaching and learning. To understand the empirical landscape of…

The aim of this article is to examine contemporary conceptualizations of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Swedish policy for early childhood education and care (ECEC). The analysis draws on in-depth interviews with high-level policy actors and the analysis of documentary material. Using the concepts of interculturality and hybridity as…

This paper analyses the motivations behind the implementation of bilingual education in the Dutch preschool system and relates this to the status of Dutch in the Dutch educational system. Based on the analysis of policy documents and questionnaires filled in by parents and teachers, this study reveals two different underlying ideologies that the…

This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the nature and the patterns of lexical growth in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and non-CLIL learners across three successive academic years. To pursue the purpose of the study a total of 110 female students of six classes in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades in both bilingual and monolingual…

German, a West Germanic language belonging to the Indo-European family, is one of the languages of culture and education in Romania. It is spoken by one of 18 recognised minorities in Romania. German has been spoken in Romania throughout history and continues to be spoken today because various German-speaking groups settled in what is now Romania…

A compulsory foreign language in Finland starts now in Grade 1 instead of Grade 3. The change has forced teachers to adopt new teaching methods. As young learners are not yet literate, teaching should focus on oral skills and awareness of diversity. Video data from 19 early foreign language lessons of five English, German, or French teachers in…

Maltese is a Semitic language closely related to Arabic in structure and morphology but is written from left to right and in the Latin script. When Malta became an independent state within the Commonwealth in 1964, the new Constitution highlighted the importance of Maltese by giving it both a national and an official status. Since 2002, Maltese…

This quantitative research focuses on exploring and describing the beliefs of 418 in-service teachers on language teaching approaches and multilingualism in the South of the Basque Country. The findings report key factors and features of multilingual education in the region where Basque (minority language), Spanish (majority language), English…

This article explores the findings from a formative study focused on language and literacy development in an international school's K5 classroom in South America. The teacher's pedagogical goal was to increase the amount of English used by students related to the social context of a restaurant. The intervention involved an integrated literacy and…

The Direct Method, a pedagogical approach for teaching additional languages through immersion, emphasizes oral interaction and everyday language usage to facilitate language acquisition. This method discourages reliance on translation and minimizes emphasis on grammatical rules. However, a fundamental question arises about the effectiveness of…

Post-colonial Hong Kong is an officially trilingual city with significant numbers of residents speaking English, Cantonese, Mandarin, or some combination of all three. Competency in these languages is promoted through educational policies and practices at all levels of schooling. Using concepts from the Deweyan framework of democracy and…

In recent years, the use of external proficiency-based tests to measure learners' language ability has increased significantly, in part thanks to the Seal of Biliteracy movement. However, there exists very limited research investigating the influence of such tests and their subsequent outcomes data on teachers' practices. As such, this study…

Research on the effects of bilingualism on third language (L3) development set in bilingual communities is scarce, outdated, and has provided mixed results. This study investigated the effects of exposure and age of onset of acquisition (AOA) of L3-English, as well as first and second language (L1/L2) skills and use, in the development of…