Nurturing Home Languages to Engage and Empower Multilingual Families

A pressing matter for early childhood educators is the need for strategies to engage families of Emergent Bilingual/Multilingual (EB/EM) children in their classroom. Research shows that EB/EM children experience negative academic and social outcomes when their home languages are not supported in the classroom and positive outcomes when their home languages are supported. The family is the greatest source of home language support for EB/EM children and their educators. Establishing partnerships with families through linguistically appropriate family engagement efforts allow children to maintain their home languages while learning a new language, help educators teach each child effectively, and allow families to support their child’s education in the classroom, home, and community. The purpose of this article is to integrate the concepts of empowerment, funds of identity, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and translanguaging into practical strategies for educators to establish and nurture engaging partnerships with multilingual children and families. Note: The terms Emergent Bilingual/Emergent Multilingual will be used to honor the home languages of children who speak a language(s) other than the dominant classroom language