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Resources: Parents

RESOURCES FOR
PARENTS

Bilingualism Matters provides advice about multilingualism and presents recent findings on the advantages of bilingualism. Visit their great information page for parents, available in multiple languages.

2 in 1 Project (in English, in Dutch)

For the 2 in 1 project from the Center for Language Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen, short video's were created about multilingualism. These informative and educational videos are meant for the parents of multilingual children, educators, and anyone else interested. Each series consists of three films, created in different languages: English, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic and Polish.

Information about how to bring up children multilingually, retaining the family language. Available in: Arabic, BKS, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, English, Euskera, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese.

Rita Rosenback founded this Multilingual Parenting blog. She is the author of Bringing up a Bilingual Child.

Blog by Crisfield Educational Consulting; see also Bilingual Families: A Practical Language Planning Guide (2021)

Roots and Wings Academy

Get advice for raising multilingual children from Roots & Wings Academy, published in Eindhoven News; listen to podcast interview with consultant.

"Bilingual children refusing to speak the home language," article from 2018 in Language on the Move

Raising Multilinguals LIVE (RML) is a  live interview series aimed at spreading information about raising multilingual children. It is hosted by Rita Rosenback, Ute Limacher-Riebold and Tetsu Yung.

Planting Languages is a European Erasmus+ cooperation of five partner organizations with expertise in Family Language Policy. The outcome of this cooperation is a set of resources that will help young multilingual parents (with children up to four years old) to make the right language choices and establish a strong language-stimulating and motivating context for their children.

Resources: HL Programs

RESOURCES FOR
HERITAGE LANGUAGE PROGRAMS

Resources: Mainstream

HULPBRONNEN VOOR
REGULIERE SCHOLEN

Nuffic

Tips van Nuffic: 

Kinderen van internationals: Steeds meer kinderen met een internationale achtergrond stromen in het basisonderwijs in. Hoe kun je als leerkracht, school of gemeente deze leerlingen optimaal ondersteunen?

Voorbeelden van klasactiviteiten (zie ook HLE Network artikel over 3M)

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Promotiefilm e3M - meertalige online leeromgeving

Hoe kun je een "Language Friendly School" worden?

Meertalig.nl is de arm van Bilingualism Matters in Nederland. Zie b.v. Omgaan met meertaligheid in het onderwijs.

Dit handboek is voor alle medewerkers van organisaties die in hun werk te maken hebben met huidige en toekomstige ouders van jonge kinderen die meertalig opgroeien. Het kan door alle medewerkers gebruikt worden bij de advisering van ouders van meertalige kinderen. Het werd ontwikkeld in het kader van het PACT voor de wijken Poelenburg en Peldersveld in de gemeente Zaanstad.

Het Nederlands en de andere talen: samen op school is een informatieve film van een half uur. Het programma is gemaakt voor schoolteams in het basisonderwijs en het voortgezet onderwijs. Je vindt hier handvatten en ideeën over het omgaan met de taaldiversiteit op jouw school, over het inzetten van alle talenkennis die aanwezig is in jouw klas. Luister en kijk naar experts en naar jongeren die vertellen over taal, over hun eigen talen en de talen op school.

Kletsheads is een podcast over meertalige kinderen voor ouders, leerkrachten en logopedisten. Dr. Sharon Unsworth gaat elke aflevering in gesprek met een andere expert over de wetenschap achter de taalontwikkeling van meertalige kinderen. Zie ook Ruimte voor de thuistaal.

Boek in het Nederlands, voor kinderen! Hoeveel talen spreek jij? Wat je altijd wilde weten over meertaligheid (2019) door Marinella Orioni

Boek in het Nederlands door Lidy Peters (2021). Het gaat in het bijzonder over een andere kijk op meertaligheid. Naar aanleiding van de nieuwste wetenschappelijke inzichten heeft de auteur een belangrijke boodschap: geef meertalige leerlingen de ruimte hun thuistaal te gebruiken in het onderwijs.

Lector Joana Duarte en onderzoekster Janke Singelsma ontwikkelden, samen met het Lectoraat Meertaligheid en Geletterdheid, apps en e-learnings om taaldiversiteit in de klas leuk en makkelijk te maken.

Expert meertaligheid, biedt lezingen, advisering, trainingen, workshops, en materiaal ontwikkeling

Roots and Wings Academy offers intercultural competence training to schools about accommodating the influx of expat children in their classrooms. Customized workshops cover topics such as internationalized curriculum, culturally competent teaching techniques, teacher-student-parent communication skills, and multilingualism at school.

Interculturas offers intercultural training to local school teachers and organizes intercultural workshops for students. See their recent brochure.

Gelijke Kansen: vier de moedertaal, de rijkdom van meertaligheid

EDucation of International Newly Arrived migrant pupils:  Deze EDINA-website is bedoeld om leerkrachten en scholen met anderstalige nieuwkomers (basis en secundair) te ondersteunen in hun praktijk en beleid. Een succesvolle opvang van deze leerlingen is immers van groot belang voor de rest van hun schoolloopbaan.

Gratis te downloaden activiteitenboek voor Oekraïense kinderen waar ze kunnen schrijven over hun ervaringen, herinneringen en hoop voor de toekomst.

Resources: Research

HERITAGE LANGUAGE RESEARCH

Eurydice article from 2012: "Should immigrants be taught in their mother tongue at schools?" See also the Eurydice report Integrating Students from Migrant Backgrounds into Schools in Europe: National Policies and Measures (2018) talks about the role of the home language in a student's holistic education (pages 136 - 140).

Document: Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds: mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education in the early years

Research project about select heritage languages in the Netherlands Research Lab for the Study of Heritage Languages of the Netherlands (HERLING), Leiden University

AThEME is a 5-year collaborative research project (2014 – 2019) studying multilingualism in Europe. See results from research into heritage languages.

PEaCH stands for “Preserving and promoting Europe’s cultural and linguistic heritage through empowerment of bilingual children and families.” The project supports European families raising bilingual and multilingual children. PEaCH will do this in the form of a handbook for parents, informative videos and an online collection of ready-to-use materials in 24 EU languages. PEaCH will also offer advice to educators interested in this topic as well as create a European network of PEaCH Ambassadors.

HaBilNet

The Harmonious Bilingualism Network creates research-based videos relating to how children become bilingual and to the factors that can help support their harmonious bilingual development,

Research about the advancement of heritage languages by Dr. Jim Cummins of Toronto

This volume (available for pdf download) covers the multidimensional and international field of Heritage Language Education, including concepts, practices, and the correlation between culture and language from the perspectives of pedagogy and research.

The Heritage Language Journal (HLJ), an online, blind peer-reviewed journal, was established in 2002 to provide a forum for scholars to disseminate research and knowledge about heritage and community languages. HLJ is published by the National Heritage Language Resource Center at UCLA.

The Journal of Home Language Research (JHLR) is an international double-blind peer-reviewed open access journal. JHLR publishes original research from any part of the world in all areas related to the study of home languages, including but not limited to applied linguistics, theoretical linguistics, psychology, sociology and education. We define home languages as any languages that are used in the family and/or community and are not the majority language(s) of the context.

The National Heritage Language Resource Center, at the University of California, Los Angeles, is a federally funded language resource center whose mission is to develop effective pedagogical approaches to teaching heritage language learners, both by creating a research base and by pursuing curriculum design, materials development, and teacher education.

A study of educational inclusion in an Irish primary school. The book refers to a wide range of relevant research findings and theories, including translanguaging, plurilingual and intercultural education, language awareness and language learner autonomy. It is essential reading for researchers and policy-makers in the field of linguistically inclusive education.

Resources: Reading

IMPORTANCE OF READING

Resources: Other Countries

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES

Modersmålundervisning in Sweden

Study of the mother tongue is incorporated into national curriculum of Sweden (see curriculum on Skolverket, in Swedish)

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In Sweden all pupils in the compulsory and upper secondary school whose parents have a mother tongue other than Swedish, and where this language is used as the means of daily communication can receive instruction in the mother tongue providing the pupil has good knowledge of the language. (Municipalities, however, are not obliged to arrange mother tongue tuition if there are no suitable teachers available, or if there are less than five pupils in the municipality wishing to have such instruction.)

Sydney, New South Wales

Video about heritage language schools in Sydney (programs receive government funding per student)

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New South Wales Community School Language Program

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The Sydney Institute for Community Languages Education at the University of Sydney aims to support the teaching and learning of community languages by working with teachers to benefit students by building capacity in schools.

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(read HLE Network interview with SICLE)

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Community Languages Australia

Representing all community language school state and territory associations and federations, Community Languages Australia works at a national level to advocate and promote community language schools. It also works on creating synergies and standardization across Australian associations, federations and schools. CLA further supports these institutions in facilitating effective quality languages education, by providing resources, professional development opportunities and guidance to new and established communities. Collecting valuable data and supporting research also enables CLA to inform policy-making and facilitate research, further future-proofing the dynamic and highly diverse community language school sector.

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(read HLE Network interview with CLA)

Ontario, Canada

Video about heritage language programs in Ontario (falls under school boards)

HSU in Zurich, Switzerland

In the Canton of Zurich, more than 10,000 children attend 400 heritage language courses in 27 languages. The Canton maintains a directory of the language programs available and provides training to the teachers. The lessons are politically and denominationally neutral and recognized by the Ministry of Education of the Canton of Zurich.

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(read HLE Network interview with PHZH in Zurich)

Other coalitions of heritage language schools

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