Supporting Multilingual Students

Audience: ALL

Facilitator: Stephanie Dodyk

Description: According to the 2021 census data from Statistics Canada, one-in-four people speak a language that’s different from Canada’s two official languages.  With that, more and more students are bringing their diverse cultures and languages to the classroom.  These students learn how to expertly navigate around and acquire English language in order to learn content, make friends, and contribute to the learning community.  In doing so, they become multilingual.

So how can teachers leverage the language and culture multilingual students bring during instruction in English?  How can we develop vocabulary in not only English, but in the student’s home language as well?  What about comprehension of English text?  What about getting them to talk?

This 75-minute session will look at three key areas of support for students whose first language is not English:

• Comprehensible Input

• Background Knowledge

• Oral Language