What happens when a child never hears their own language or they can never identify with any of the characters in the stories they read at school?
Why multilingual stories matter
Multilingual books and stories are powerful tools when supporting EAL learners' linguistic and emotional development. Far from being just supplementary materials or just to fill the time in a lesson, they build a bridge between the learner's home language and English by affirming identity, boosting confidence, and enhancing comprehension. In today’s culturally diverse classrooms, stories that include or reflect learners’ home languages validate their experiences and create a more empathetic learning environment. According to Gibbons (2015), “Children’s languages and cultures should be reflected in classroom resources and interactions to promote equity and identity affirmation.”
Valuing linguistic identity through stories
Many times I have seen EAL learners arriving in their classroom where their home languages are not visible or used and that has always made me sad. Cummins (2001) says that, “The acknowledgement and use of students’ home languages in the classroom fosters a sense of belonging and supports identity development.” When learners see their languages in print or hear them spoken around the school, it sends a powerful message that their language actually matters.
Supporting comprehension
In my EAL lessons, I love using storytelling and bilingual books and stories, as that helps scaffolding learners’ understanding. Familiar plot lines and narrative structures can ease the cognitive load in a learner’s multilingual mind. Learners can even recognise some vocabulary, making it easier to acquire new English words and grammar. For example, a dual-language story can help an EAL learner identify familiar images and some key vocabulary, or predict the story ending. Cummins (1979) clearly states that, “Conceptual knowledge developed in one language helps to make input in the other language comprehensible.”
Encouraging higher-order thinking
Garcia and Wei (2014) agree that, “Multilingual learners develop metalinguistic awareness when comparing languages, enhancing cognitive flexibility and abstract thinking.”
I often use activities like “Find the Difference” (comparing a sentence or phrase across languages) or ask “How would this story feel different in your language?” to develop vocabulary choice, story reflection, and critical thinking.
Fostering home-school partnerships
Have you done a ‘Story of the Week’ event in your school - when parents are encouraged to read to their children in their home language? This sends the message that the school values parents’ role in their child’s education and it also promotes storytelling traditions across generations and cultures. Kenner (2004) highlights that, “When schools incorporate parents’ home language use into learning, children’s confidence and academic performance increase.”
I still remember when a little girl in Year 3 from Israel brought to school her whole collection of ‘Mr Men and Little Miss’ in Hebrew because her Mum was reading those mini-stories to her; she was a huge fan and she has seen that same book collection but in English in my EAL room. Her face lit up at that moment when she recognised her favourite ‘Mr Men and Little Miss’.
Practical strategies for the classroom
Little (2017) underlines the importance that, “Using multilingual books as a pedagogical resource encourages inclusive teaching practices and shared literacy experiences.”
- Class library - Gather a small selection of dual-language books in key home languages spoken in your class (e.g. Arabic, Urdu, Polish, Somali).
- Story-telling in a home language - Encourage learners to retell the story to a partner in their language before summarising it in English.
- Audio books - Use multilingual audio versions to support pronunciation and engagement.
- Language detectives - Ask learners to find words or sentence structures they recognise across the two languages.
- Family story sharing - Invite children to bring in a favourite story book from home and share its meaning or a translation with the class.
- Pair reading - Pair a more confident bilingual learner with a beginner to read stories together in both languages.
Challenges and considerations
Whilst the benefits of multilingual storytelling might be clear, there are still practical considerations. Conteh (2015) says that, “Teachers do not need to speak a child’s home language to value and integrate it into classroom learning.”
Some schools or teachers might have limited access to multilingual books. What I have done as a solution is to ask parents to donate unused books in their home language from their homes or to bring back books in different languages from their holiday. You can even stamp them with ‘Happily donated by … (learner’s name)’. This has helped me create a large multilingual library in one of my schools.
Encouraging learners to be the ‘experts’ in their language can foster classroom inclusion and peer learning. Collaboration with community libraries or organisations like Mantra Lingua or World Stories can also help. As classrooms continue to reflect global diversity, stories that represent and respect that diversity become important in building a learning environment where every child belongs.
References:
Conteh, J. (2015). The EAL Teaching Book: Promoting Success for Multilingual Learners
Cummins, J. (1979). Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency, Linguistic Interdependence, the Optimum Age Question and Some Other Matters
Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society
Garcia, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education
Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning (2nd ed.)
Kenner, C. (2004). Becoming Biliterate: Young Children Learning Different Writing Systems
Little, S. (2017). Multilingual Storybooks and Literacy Development in the Early Years. Early Child Development and Care, 187(3–4)
