In the context of increasing globalisation and the dominance of English as the lingua franca, the promotion of smaller state and less widely used languages from an early age is crucial for their long-term sustainability.
There is currently a lack of knowledge and applied methodology available on language immersion to organisations working to promote these less widely used languages in the 0.5-4 year old age range, as well as a need for practical tools for nursery school teachers to transmit language in an innovative and contemporary way. There is also a necessity to provide individuals that are training to work in pre-school establishments with the correct skills and expertise to do so. This project aims to address the shortfall within these four specific regions.
The project will undertake a comparative research of the provisions, approaches and resources available in the various language communities. This will include providing information to parents on the benefits of multilingual pre-school education, both mother tongue language transmission and immersion, and the teaching tools and resources to practitioners. The study will make recommendations on the best practices available and the resources produced thereafter will be based on this innovative research.
A pamphlet will be published for pre-school teachers and parents, including information on the advantages of transferring the mother tongue language and immersion education. An online guidebook and training programme will be developed to provide practitioners with the skills they need to run a successful nursery and a suite of practical tools will be produced for use in the playgroups in each target language.
The project seeks to increase the skills base of pre-school practitioners, raise the standards of skills and foster confidence amongst the adults involved within the sector and the community. This in turn will provide the children with a strong educational foundation to go on and progress with their multilingual skills, thus strengthening communities and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity.