› Can they respond using gestures, actions, their home languages, short phrases, or complete sentences?
› What language demands may require additional support?
Educators can use tools such as state early learning standards, available resources like the WIDA Early Years resources( WIDA 2016), classroom observations, and conversations with families to better understand children’ s language and literacy development. Gathering information will help educators gauge the different ways that multilingual learners show what they know and can do, which can depend on the language, context, and type of interactions involved; for example, what they may share during a one-onone versus whole group interaction. They can also investigate whether children possess background knowledge, in their home languages or in English, that can help them connect with the theme, characters, or concepts in the text.
Educators can then use strategies, such as previewview-review and cognate instruction, to make language and concepts more accessible( see Budde et al. 2026 for more details). Preview-view-review involves
› Previewing important concepts and vocabulary in children’ s home languages before instruction
› Teaching and interacting with the text primarily in English while using multimodal supports
› Reviewing and revisiting ideas in children’ s home languages and English after instruction
Educators can also reinforce language transfer through cognate instruction( Budde et al. 2026). This helps multilingual learners recognize similarities between words across languages. Cognates are words that share similar meanings and forms across languages, such as the English / Spanish cognates family / familia or animal / animal. Cognate instruction involves
› Identifying cognates connected to important vocabulary
› Explicitly pointing out similarities between words
› Encouraging children to notice connections between their home languages and English
Making cognates explicit not only facilitates multilingual learners’ vocabulary and reading comprehension development but also exposes English-speaking children to new vocabulary and cross-linguistic language awareness( Carlo et al. 2004). Teachers can illustrate this visually by creating a cognate chart( see“ Our English / Spanish Cognates” below).
Our English / Spanish Cognates
Move Mover( se)
This process helps children connect prior knowledge and home language experiences to new learning. Multilingual learners do not need to“ rediscover” all of the linguistic concepts in each language separately. Instead, they can transfer this knowledge across languages, particularly when educators make these connections explicit( Cummins 2017).
Part
Parte
Fall 2026 Young Children 81