Many educators are uncertain about the benefits of translanguaging – the use of home languages when teaching. We’ve read more than 90 publications on this topic and the results are clear: translanguaging has multiple benefits. Here we present 3 ways in which this approach could help multilingual children with a migrant background.

Project leader Elma Blom, together with the help of Zahraa Attar and partner NEMO, explains in 2.5 minutes exactly what Multi-STEM does. We are a 6-year research project and have been working closely with our 31 (practice) consortium partners from the very beginning. Would you also like to know what Multi-STEM does? Watch it here.

In this post, two bachelor’s students share their experiences on visiting one of our partner museums with multilingual families. Their experiences give insight into the feelings and thoughts of these families, who are not in the habit of going to science museums in their free time. Curious about what happened? Read the post to find out!

A struggle I’ve had as a teacher of newcomers is that students sometimes have difficulty finding the words to show me what they know. Allowing students to translanguage –to use whatever language they feel comfortable expressing themselves in–has been a great way for me as a teacher to enable students to learn at a level that fits them best.

Newcomer children are rarely involved in shaping their education, even when it comes to issues that matter to them, such as using their home language in learning. How do the children feel about it? What advice do they have?

There are many ways to incorporate home languages in school. Perhaps the most important lesson is that a focus on cultural and linguistic diversity at school does not have to be cumbersome. On the contrary, in the video below we see teachers having fun with it, which will certainly be contagious for many children.

Multilingual children may experience a reduced sense of belonging if the linguistic landscape of their school is not representative of their own linguistic and cultural resources. The linguistic landscape of a school refers to all the visible written signs and objects found inside a school, such as in the hallways and in classrooms. By enriching the linguistic landscape, the school could be a more inclusive place for multilingual children.

Becoming a multilingual museum can seem rather daunting. Thanks to examples from museums who have been working on this and technological tools, we now have more ideas on how museums can start working on becoming (more) multilingual. See this blogpost for some inspiration!

Anyone who needs a translator will never learn Dutch. Translation apps are for people who don’t want to learn the language. These statements can still be heard in the corners of school hallways in 2023, even amongst professionals working with multilingual families. Nevertheless, here’s a gentle plea for a society in which translation and the will to learn Dutch both have a place.

You learn Dutch by using Dutch, or so I was always told. But is this really true? Hanneke Baart is a teacher of newcomer students and in her experience, the use of the home language can actually increase their understanding of Dutch. When she started looking into this concept, she discovered that researchers had already given it a name: translanguaging.