Respond

Prioritise a sense of belonging by using key words and phrases in children’s home language(s) related to daily needs, routines, and feelings.

Support children to develop a secure relationship with at least one key kaiako. Where possible, connect children with kaiako who speak the same home language and/or share the same culture.

Encourage communication between children who speak the same home language and/or share the same culture. Reassure whānau that it is good for children to be speaking their home language at the centre.

Look for signs of children’s understanding (receptive language) as an indication they are on the pathway to learning the new language.

Tune in and respond to children’s understanding as if they were using spoken language. Use a combination of spoken words, actions, gestures, images, and props to enhance understanding.

Speak slowly and clearly, keep spoken language simple. Capitalise on opportunities to repeat useful words and simple phrases often.

Refer to Understanding and Using Language sub-area of Kōwhiti Whakapae: Oral language & literacy for further practices.

Combine spoken and non-spoken language and resources to establish communication and trust with children, e.g., create and use cards with key words or phrases in both home and setting languages on one side and a related image on the other.

Model translanguaging by drawing on words and phrases with children’s home language(s) to support their understanding, and to show this approach is both a valued and useful way to make sense of the world and communicate.

Build language learning on children’s funds of knowledge. Help children to connect the new with the familiar.

Value children’s use of their home languages to communicate. Take time to listen and interpret their body language as best you can.

Encourage children to bring familiar objects from home to use as prompts and scaffolds for their spoken language.

Recognise mokopuna who are operating in a ‘silent period’ by modelling conversational language even though they may not respond verbally.

Use frequent repetition of games where mokopuna name items based on images or objects they see.

Extend receptive language by reading picture books, telling stories, and repeating songs, chants and waiata a ringa.

Refer to Understanding and Using Language sub-area of Kōwhiti Whakapae: Oral language & literacy for further practices.

Respond positively when mokopuna speak in their home language and/or share aspects of their home culture.

Use simple word games, activities, and books to meaningfully incorporate home languages alongside the setting’s languages.

Support home language retention through repeated use of music and books in these languages.

Show mokopuna you value their home languages by taking an interest in how words and written scripts differ, or are similar, from language to language.

Continue to encourage whānau to use their home languages with their mokopuna as their mokopuna gain confidence using the early learning setting’s languages.

Encourage mokopuna to speak by commenting or asking open-ended questions and pausing to give response time. Be mindful of those who may continue to operate in the ‘silent period’ and tune in to their non-spoken responses.

Provide small group experiences that emphasise interaction between participants, both kaiako and mokopuna.

Scaffold expressive language by using recasting and rephrasing, e.g. mokopuna says, “flower”, kaiako says, “Yes, it is a flower – a pretty, blue and white flower”.

Refer to Understanding and Using Language sub-area of Kōwhiti Whakapae: Oral language & literacy for further practices.

Prioritise children’s right to make their own choices in how to communicate by encouraging them to draw on vocabulary, language forms, and print from all their languages to express and communicate their ideas.

Use strategies such as wondering and commenting about how an idea or concept might be expressed in different languages. Ask children how they would explain or describe things in their home languages.

Encourage mokopuna to share their cultural and social knowledge, including language and written scripts.

Invite mokopuna to interpret for others who speak the same home languages and/or share the same culture. Value their knowledge and help.

Continue to provide whānau with support to continue using their home languages, including when their mokopuna speak the early learning setting’s languages at home.

Continue to ‘gift’ new words to mokopuna to expand vocabulary. Pause and explain the meaning of new words and use these repeatedly in context.

Encourage mokopuna to engage in conversations with others by designing experiences that require peer interactions.

Refer to Understanding and Using Language sub-area of Kōwhiti Whakapae: Oral language & literacy for further practices.

Sensitively invite mokopuna to help interpret ideas for others when needed, using both their home languages and their new languages, and show appreciation for this ability.

Encourage mokopuna to draw on all their languages to speak, mark-make and write, sing, dance or present by recognising and positively acknowledging this.

Discuss with mokopuna elements of structure and grammar across their languages (metalinguistics). For example, comparing word structures (morphology) and words order (syntax).