English-Only Rules at School: Why Language Inclusion Is a Leadership Decision
When I was teaching fifth grade, I had a group of French-speaking students who were quite fluent in English. When they were chatting with each other on the playground, I encouraged them to use French. Another teacher in my division told them they had to speak English. Same school. Same grade level. Same students. Two […]
Your Students Love Multilingualism. So Why Do They Still Want English-Only Classrooms?
Schools love celebrating diversity. We display flags from around the world, organize international days, invite families to share their traditions, and proudly describe our communities as multicultural and multilingual. But what happens when we ask students whether those languages should actually be used for learning? A few years ago, I asked 71 Grade 4 students […]
Why Multilingual Learners Aren’t Just the EAL Department’s Responsibility
Why multilingual learners become the EAL team’s responsibility A multilingual learner is struggling with a science text. The classroom teacher notices. Someone says: “Can EAL help them?” It is a perfectly reasonable question. But when that becomes the default response every time a multilingual learner encounters difficulty, something important can happen: Responsibility for the student […]
How Can a School Become More Language-Inclusive?
Walk into almost any international school and you’ll probably see multilingualism everywhere. Students speaking different languages on the playground. Families communicating across languages at pickup. Teachers and staff switching between languages throughout the day. And then the bell rings, and much of that linguistic diversity disappears when students go into their classrooms for learning. English becomes […]
Global Identity Cannot Live on International Day Alone
I didn’t discover multilingual education in a textbook. I lived it. In second grade, I entered a Spanish immersion program where I learned math and science entirely in Spanish. Not vocabulary lists, not “Hola, ¿cómo estás?” worksheets. Real content. Real academic thinking. In a language that was not my home language, and it changed me. I […]