Parents

How to support bilingual children during the school closures

At this time of uncertainty and during the school closures Naomi Flynn, the Director of Bilingualism Matters in Reading, has this helpful advice on how parents and carers can support multilingual children at home.

Two new resources created by the languages education experts at the European Centre for Modern Languages. The Treasure Chest and the Wakelet are packed with resources for engaging activities in multiple languages. Activities are differentiated for multilingual pupils and language learners from pre-school to secondary age and will be updated during the period of school closures. 

Mantra Lingua are offering their library of dual language ebooks free of charge to all EAL households.  Currently, there are over 550 books and 38 languages in the library. Each book is read aloud in English and your Home Language. There are folk tales, myths, stories of multi-cultural life here in the UK and reference books. Each book has a video and a set of activities to help build your child's English language skills. The library covers reading ages from 3 to 15 years and can be accessed on computers, laptops, tablets and smart phones. Fill in the form to receive a code that will give you free access to the library until 31 August 2020. 

My Hero is You, Storybook for Children on COVID-19 - over 1,700 children, parents, caregivers and teachers from around the world took the time to share how they were coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. They have all influenced this story project. Developed for and by children around the world, the story is available in multiple languages.

Polish for EAL speakers - suggested resources to support Polish heritage language speakers during school closures, from the Polish Education Committee in Scotland.

Time Together booklet - free to download from the National Literacy Trust, is a colourful, easy-to-read guide of simple and fun suggestions for how multilingual parents can support their young child’s learning at home.  Available in Arabic, Bengali, English, French, Gujurati, Kurdish, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali, Urdu and Yoruba. 

Helping your child learn is a short, easy to understand guide for parents of student who use English as an Additional Language.  Free to download and available in Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, Gujerati, Lithuanian, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian, Somali and Urdu. 

Bilingualism Matters

Bilingualism Matters have produced a range of leaflets informed by current research which advise and guide both parents and practitioners.

Speaking two languages can help a child: 

• maintain links with their family culture and heritage
• develop stronger academic skills in reading, writing and language learning  
• enhance cognitive skills such as attention span, problem solving, communication skills and task switching

Practitioners will want to be able to support pupils’ linguistic and cultural heritage whilst also ensuring that their English language skills are developing.

Bilingualism

Bilingualism Matters, an official Centre at the University of Edinburgh, provides a wealth of information and resources for teachers and parents. Bilingualism Matters is also at the forefront of the latest research on the benefits of bilingualism and language learning - here you can find out about previous research or even volunteer to participate in current studies. 

SCILT, in collaboration with Bilingualism Matters and Glasgow City Council’s EAL Service, ran a series of workshops throughout Scotland to showcase the benefits of bilingualism and practical strategies teachers can use to promote bilingualism in their classrooms. Ideas were offered on how to engage bilingual learners more and support literacy skills across both languages. The presentations from the 'Bilingualism DOES Matter!' workshops are available below:

• Multilingualism and language learning: Myths, facts and challenges - Antonella Sorace
• Supporting bilingualism in the classroom - Maria Walker
• Bilingualism DOES matter! - Angela de Britos