Nursery World - Additional language speakers

Far from being a disadvantage, learning more than one language can have a wealth of benefits and, in normally developing children, does not create any problems at all. In the UK, we are traditionally very bad at learning other languages, but more than half of the world's population speaks more than one language.

In the UK, we are traditionally very bad at learning other languages, but more than half of the world's population speaks more than one language.

To support a child who comes to the nursery speaking little or no English:

* Gain some understanding of the child's culture.

* Use resources from the child's culture in a way that is familiar to them.

* Encourage the parents to continue to talk to the child in their mother tongue.

* Value all the cultures and languages brought to your centre through activities such as topic work, music, food, story-telling.

* Check with the parents that the child's first language is developing normally. Although learning two languages is not in itself a problem, it can mean that difficulties are more easily overlooked.

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