Preschools Supporting Multilingual Children

One community many languages
Working with diverse languages and cultures in
Reykjavík‘s preschools
Fríða Bjarney Jónsdóttir
Project manager/consultant
Reykjavík City Department of Education and Youth

The language in our heart
frida.b.jonsdottir@reykjavik.is

The Department of Preschool Education
* 64 Pre-schools
* 5700 children – staff number 1.500 +
approximately 100 staff working with
support for children with special needs
* Around 200 of those have another
backround than icelandic.
* 19 private preschools – 1150 children
* 220 child minders – 900 children
is in charge of:

Children with a diverse backround
* 1132 children with diverse
background
* Thereof c.a. 700 with
immigrant parents
* 80 different nationalities and
50 languages
* Most of the children, 264 have
polish as a mother tongue
* 99 children with filippino
backround
* Ongoing project with a polish
speaking teacher to facilitate
language, act as a cultural
broker and work with parents
and teachers.

Law and policy for preschools in
Iceland
* The Icelandic law for preschools:
* Preschools are for all children regardless of physical or mental ability,
culture or religion
* The preschool is the first school stage in the school system and is
intended for children under compulsory school age according to the act
on preschools no. 90/2008.
* Preschools are inclusive and education and care is based
on equality.
* The guidelines assume that each child should be cared for
according to its own needs and in close cooperation with
parents
* National Curriculum Guide for preschool published 2011
* Each preschool is obliged to use the National Curriculum as a guiding
light but every preschool creates its own curriculum which
demonstrates the main goals of each preschool.

Policy for preschools in Reykjavík
* The City of Reykjavik’s Human Rights Policy
* http://www.reykjavik.is/Portaldata/1/Resources/mannr_ttindaskrifstofa/__ensku_stefnan___heild.pdf
* Multicultural policy for Preschools in Reykjavík, first issued 2001, revised
and republished 2006
* http://www.rvk.is/Portaldata/1/Resources/leikskolasvid/fjolmenningarste_lei_enska.pdf
* Multicultural policy for multicultural education and leisure for children
age 2-16, issued 2014.
* Implemented into preschools, elementary schools and after school activities
from 2014-2017
* Reading and literacy policy, “Lesið í leik”
* published September 2013.
* Implemented 2013-2015.

Máltaka og læsi ungra
tví/fjöltyngdra barna
* Mál byrjar að þróast í frumbernsku og er náttúrulegt ferli
* Máltaka barns er þroskaferli samofið öllum öðrum þroskaþáttum
* Það á bæði við um máltöku móðurmáls og íslensku sem annars
máls
* Mál þróast yfir í læsi (Bernskulæsi) leikskólaárin mikilvægur grunnur
* Að læra að lesa er ekki náttúrulegt ferli/ We where never born to read
* Til þess að barn þrói með sér tvítyngi/fjöltyngi þarf að vinna markvisst
með móðurmálið/in og íslensku (skólamálið)
* Sameiginleg ábyrgð okkar allra að stuðla að virku tvítyngi

Hvernig læra ung börn tungumál?
* Í samskiptum við aðra
* Þar sem samræður leiða til skilnings
* Í Raunverulegum aðstæðum t.d. útikennslu:
* þar sem tækifæri gefst til þess að eiga í samræðum um merkingu út frá
viðfangsefninu (frá hönd til hugar)
* Þegar hægt er að nýta öll skynfærin (lykta, snerta, bragða, hlusta og
sjá)
* Þar sem þau upplifa að kunnátta þeirra og þekking sé mikilvæg (á
ekki síst við um tvítyngd börn sem eru með annað móðurmál)
* Með því að fá tækifæri til virkrar þátttöku í stað þess að vera
óvirk – Muna blikið í augum barna!!!!

Hvernig læra ung börn tungumál?
* Þar sem mikið er lesið fyrir þau og spjallað við þau
* Þar sem hinn fullorðni leggur sig eftir því að hlusta á börn og styður þau
við að koma merkingu sinni á framfæri
* Þar sem málörvun (og stuðningur við máltöku og læsi):
* Tengist því sem verið er að vinna í barnahópnum og þeim orðaforða sem
nauðsynlegur er í þeim aðstæðum
* Felur í sér að börn fá að byggja á reynslu sinni, þau eru undirbúin fyrir þátttöku
í verkefnum og fá stuðning við að vinna úr verkefnum
* Unnið er á dýptina með ákveðið þema eða viðfangsefni s.s. Eins og bækur
texta í ákveðinn tíma og í tengslum við ólík viðfangsefni

Language and Literacy Policy for
preschools (Lesið í leik)
* Presents an holistic approach to language and literacy learning
* Emergent literacy – circuit from birth to fully literate
* Highlights the importance of “Active bilingualism” sustaining mother
tongue while learning Icelandic as a second/third (additional) language.
http://eldri.reykjavik.is/Portaldata/1/Resources/skola_og_fristundasvid/s
kjol/L_sisstefna.pdf
“Proactive cooperation between family and preschool
enhances the opportunity to promote children’s
active bilingualism which is beneficial both for
individual and the society” (Lesið í leik pg. 4).

Policy for Multicultural /Intercultural
Education and Play (Heimurinn er hér).
* The policy adresses preschools, compulsory schools
and after school activities
* The guiding light of the policy stresses the
importance of:
Educational and Social Success for all
children and youth along with the
opportunity to become proud of their
identity, background and culture

Policy for Multicultural /Intercultural Education
and Play (Heimurinn er hér) cont.
• Three main goals of the
policy:
• Proactive and varied
teaching strategies -
Multicultural Education
• Icelandic as a second
language and active
bilingualism
• Working with families

Icelandic as a second language
and active bilingualism
* The Policy adresses the importance of quality in language learning and
literacy both in regard to Icelandic and the possibility to sustain mother
language
* All teachers and staff are responsible for building positive attitudes and
respect towards ALL MOTHER LANGUAGES
* „It is not the job of the special teaching teacher“
* All aspects of language learning should be taken into account
* Social and cognitive - Cummins BISC/CALP
* Language and literacy learning should be a part of the whole curriculum
both in preschool and elementary school
* This is the first policy that focuses on the whole learning of the child also in
regard to after school activities
* Stresses the importance of cooperation (families – Ngo‘s – Library -
other)

Cooperation with parents
* Interview with parents before the child starts preschool, with a
interpreter if needed at home or in the preschool. The preschool
teacher and parents share information on:
* Issues regarding the child and families
* Issues regarding the preschool and the adjustment period
* importance of maintaining mother tongue, parents meeting and other things in 10 languages
* Preschools welcome parents to cooperate
http://www.reykjavik.is/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-3806/6354_view-2290/
* In the preschool a great emphasis is put on building good cooperation with
all parents with the welfare of the child and the group of children as
guidance. Parent cooperation is founded on the basis of equality whereas the
parents are specialists in issues regarding their children and preschool
teachers specialists in the educational environment of young children. The
strength of each preschool community is found in a diverse group of
parents but there are many ways to activate that force in cooperation of
preschools and families.

Linguistic development – A Joint
* Information for parents of children in 10 languages:
* Ages 0-3
* Ages 3-6
* Ages 6-10
* Ages 10-16
* http://www.aarhus.dk/da/borger/familie-boern-og-unge/Pasning/Dit-barns-sprog-og-laesning/Pjecer-til-foraeldre.
aspx
Responsibility

Resources for teachers and parents –
available in 10 languages
* Questions and answears for multilingual families
http://reykjavik.is/baeklingar-fyrir-foreldra-brochures-parents
* Vocabulary lists
* http://reykjavik.is/ordalistar-eydublod-og-fleira-hagnytt
* Messages from preschool to parents
* http://reykjavik.is/skilabod-fra-skola-0

LAP
* Roma Chumak-Horbatch Language appropriate practices
http://kritin.is/2014/08/28/tungumalateiti-i-toronto/
* Thinging of language and linguistic activities as a research project
* Make children interested and curious for languages and literacy
Assimilative Supportive Inclusive

Creating room for languages
Gunhild Tomter Alstad (2014)
* Translanguaging
* Norwegian preschool teacher:
* „Many of them are very interested (in languages) and this has
developed to be more or less like a language play. They want to
know „what‘s that called“ all the time. The monolingual children are
interested in learning for example Somali. Amal (Somali girl) didn‘t
want to say anything in Somali, but now this has suddenly changed,
so now they think it‘s fun. Myn intention was to strengthen their self
image and pride of their own culture and identity and their status in
the group of children“. (Gunhild Tomter Alstad (2014).

Creating room for languages

Starting preschool – preserving
languages
* Book of communication between preschool and family
* To make the adjustment period easier for children and parents
* Better access into Icelandic
* Build respect and knowledge for diverse mother languages

Starting prescchool – respecting
languages

Examples of working with children and
families with linguistic and cultural treasures
* Identity texts (skráningar, leiðarbækur)
* Book bags
* Star of the week
* Families engaged in literacy project‘s
* Event book
* Polish speaking facilitator/bridge
* Icelandic courses for parents
* International day of heritage languages

The language we carry inside

Viðhorf og áhugi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNAeRy6jS7c

Thank you 

Preschools Supporting Multilingual Children

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