MULTILINGUAL children across Reading have immersed themselves in storytelling sessions held in seven different languages.
A group of 12 student volunteers from the University of Reading visited four schools to read books in Malayalam, German, Arabic, Mandarin and more.
The goal of the joint project between the university and the John Sykes Foundation was to celebrate children’s heritage languages and hone early literacy skills.
Charlotte Dormer, project volunteer, said: “Through this project, we wanted to demonstrate the value of storytelling in multiple languages for all children, whether multilingual or not.
“We know that lockdowns limited the opportunities that children had to experience language rich environments, and this was an opportunity to start to re-address that balance.
“We also know it is important that children read; the evidence all points towards better social outcomes for children who are read to and who enjoy reading, and for children who are multilingual it is also important that they are encouraged to develop those skills in all their languages.”
Research conducted at the university’s Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism suggests that talk-rich environments, where heritage languages are used alongside English, help to promote multilingual children’s understanding of language and literacy more generally.
Prof Holly Joseph, the department’s director, said: “The UK school system tends to be very English-centric and does not always celebrate the other languages children speak. This can mean that children don’t feel proud of their other languages or that parents talk and read to their children in English only.
“We want children and families to know that speaking heritage languages at home is a wonderful thing to do in terms of family connections, a sense of cultural identity, and it helps children with early reading skills in all their languages.”
Volunteers were left impressed by the way in which English-only speaking students engaged with stories told in other languages.
Gemma Stevens, deputy manager of Waingels Gardens Day Nursery, said: “The children were really engaged in the storytelling sessions. They were trying out new words with each other and practised repetition, a key element of pre-school learning.”
The project has also encouraged multilingual staff at the pre-school to feel confident reading in their own languages, even when few of the children in the setting speak that specific language.
In addition to delivering the reading sessions, the £1,700 donated through the Community Fund enabled the project team to provide eight dual language books to each of the four nurseries, representing a total of 17 community languages.
All four nurseries that took part in the project plan to continue using the books to read to children, helping to ensure the benefits of multilingual storytelling reach future cohorts of children.
The team also distributed leaflets to parents and teachers explaining best practice for working with multilingual children and gave advice on how best to support their development by encouraging reading and learning in the home.
