Tricks to Help Linguistically Diverse Children Be Friends

10. Narrate play to help both newcomers and English speakers understand what the other is doing.

9. Be a language learning role model-show you aren’t afraid to give it a try.

8. Remind everyone to speak slowly and repeat to help friends understand.

7. Practice gestures, expressions, props and pointing to clarify your message.

6. Read a story in a different language so everyone knows how it feels to be the language minority.

5. Teach ASL signs to connect meaning to words for multilingual groups.

4. Let children take the role of language teacher to be proud of their skills.

3. Assign language buddies – a more experienced bilingual with a newcomer.

2. Train volunteers to use their non-English language and include English speakers when they play.

1. Fill the environment with books and authentic learning materials representing all languages and cultures in the group.