Supporting and encouraging first language use:
Incorporate the children’s first language by learning how to say some greetings.
Include the first languages of the children in environmental classroom print (e.g., Hello
and Welcome signs, names).
Give ELLs opportunities to teach some words from their fi rst language to the class
(e.g., book, blocks, cookie).
Invite ELLs to work and play with same-language partners from time to time (e.g., while
reading or working on the computer).
Invite older siblings or students who speak the child’s fi rst language into the classroom
and observe them interacting. It is an opportunity to hear the child using his/her most
familiar form of communication. The older child could translate, when necessary. It is
important to continue this interaction after the child begins to use English.
Include calendars that refl ect the cultures and languages of the ELLs, where possible.
Embed the diversity in the classroom and in the broader community in learning centres
(e.g., boxes and cans in the home centre, environmental print, fl yers, newspapers, fabric,
cooking utensils).
Accept and honour children’s early writing efforts that are in a fi rst language.
Include books written in the languages of the ELLs.
Play children’s songs in their fi rst languages.
Invite resource people (e.g., Elders, co-op students, ECE students, pre-service teacher
candidates) who speak languages represented in the community to participate in
the daily life of the classroom or be part of special events (e.g., as guest readers or
storytellers, on fi eld trips, during cooking experiences).
Include information technology (e.g., provide electronic stories in the children’s fi rst
language, have a parent record a story for the listening centre).