Nursery World - So to speak (1)

Be aware of the steps you can take to help children whose first language is not English to settle in at nursery, writes Penny Tassoni Rarely a year goes by without some politician bemoaning the fact that the English do not speak other languages well. This is not quite the reality though, as many young children in our nurseries and schools are actually bi-lingual and in some cases multi-lingual - because English is not their home language. Many practitioners worry about how best to support these children, so understanding a little about how we learn more than one language at a time can be useful.

Rarely a year goes by without some politician bemoaning the fact that the English do not speak other languages well. This is not quite the reality though, as many young children in our nurseries and schools are actually bi-lingual and in some cases multi-lingual - because English is not their home language. Many practitioners worry about how best to support these children, so understanding a little about how we learn more than one language at a time can be useful.

A good starting point is to remember that there is no such thing as a 'typical' child. Some children come into settings with fluency in both their home language and in English, while others are being exposed to English for the first time. Finding out the degree to which the child is familiar with English is essential, not only to support their language development , but also to help the child emotionally to settle in to what otherwise may seem a very frightening and alien environment.

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