This article first appeared in TESOL Journal, Volume 12, Number 1. Subscribers can access issues here. Only TESOL members may subscribe. To become a member of TESOL, please click here, and to purchase articles, please visit Wiley-Blackwell. © TESOL International Association.

1. Introduction 

Multilingual children’s language development is influenced by the quantity, diversity, and sophistication of the language practices used by their teachers in school (Bowers & Vasilyeva, 2011; Castro, Páez, Dickinson, & Frede, 2011). Language input is central to how children learn languages, and providing opportunities for children to be exposed to high-quality language that is at and slightly above learners’ ability plays a central role in effective language instruction for children (Dubiner, 2019; Krashen, 1985). The quality use of home languages to explain and discuss ideas is connected to increased vocabulary learning in the home language, with potential benefits to English language learning (Hindman & Wasik, 2015). The use of children’s home languages likewise plays a role in literacy learning, with the increased use of these languages by the teacher linked to higher reading performance at the end of prekindergarten (Burchinal, Field, López, Howes, & Pianta, 2012).

Though teachers’ language choices can play a key role in children’s language development, little attention has been given to identifying effective multilingual language practices for teachers (Langeloo, Lara, Deunk, Klitzing, & Strijbos, 2019). The study reported in this article considered teachers’ language practices in early childhood classrooms, focusing on how multilingual teachers make instructional choices and develop practices about when and how to draw on their own multilingualism to support children’s learning.

2. Teacher Language Practices

Multilingual teachers make in-the-moment decisions about what languages to use in the classroom. These include decisions to use multilingual interactions to support communication, scaffold learning, and manage classroom activities (Durán & Palmer, 2014; Gort & Pontier, 2013; Gort & Sembiante, 2015). Recent work on multilingual pedagogies has framed these movements across languages as translanguaging (García & Kleifgen, 2019). Translanguaging describes the full range of multilingual persons’ language practices, including the flexible movement between languages that reflects the real language practices of many multilinguals (Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015).

Within a translanguaging approach, teachers make decisions about when to use multiple languages in the classroom and how to incorporate these practices into classroom instruction. Though teachers’ language use during classroom interactions may not always represent conscious choices, teachers can and do make active decisions about when and how to draw on their multiple languages. These include decisions about language choice and language mode (Grosjean, 2010). Language choice refers to the selection of a primary language. Language mode is the decision to use only one language or more than one and includes whether, and in what ways, a multilingual person chooses to draw on languages other than the primary language. Both language choice and mode can change over the course of an interaction as a speaker makes active choices and adapts within the context of the interaction...

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This article first appeared in TESOL Journal, 12(3), e583. For permission to use text from this article, please go to Wiley-Blackwell and click on "Request Permission" under "Article Tools."

doi.org/10.1002/tesj.583