TYCEMC Teaching Young Children English in a Multilingual Context
Young children (aged 5–8) beginning schooling are embarking on their developmental pathway of learning to use language in schooling contexts, such as reading and writing. This makes them more reliant on spoken language and a range of other meaning-making resources such as visuals (both static and animated) and sound (music and sound effects).
With this in mind, the aims of Teaching young children in English in multilingual contexts are to:
- develop teachers' understanding of the notion of meaning making and how we can use that to inform the kinds of scaffolding that will build the meaning-making capacity of students in multilingual classrooms
- develop teachers' understanding of the need for explicit teaching practices that will build up students' repertoires of meaning-making resources so that they can be successful learners
- provide a positive context for teachers to reflect critically and openly on their teaching and develop shared understandings about scaffolding in order to improve the effectiveness of whole-school collaboration. The course incorporates a program of classroom-based action research and readings. Trained Tutors deliver 18 hours face-to-face learning in seven modules which, when combined with between module readings and activities, is equivalent to more than 40 hours professional development for teachers.
Modules:
- Module 1: Making Meaning in Multilingual Contexts
- Module 2: Scaffolding Learners
- Module 3: Getting Active with Language
- Module 4: Understanding Stories
- Module 5: Learning the Language of Stories
- Module 6: Learning to Explain How things Happen or are Done
- Module 7: Planning for Meaning-Making Success