By Bethany Lewis
Original article: LINK
Many teachers recognise that multilingual students have unique strengths. However, when it comes to their needs, teachers don’t always feel equipped to address their pupils’ needs effectively [LINK]. This article reviews studies from 2010 to 2023 to find out what supports have been most helpful for multilingual writers. Seven key strategies emerged:
- The role of the teacher: Teachers’ guidance is crucial in helping students improve their writing.
- Writing mentor texts: Using exemplar texts to model good writing helps students understand different genres [LINK].
- Creating multimodal texts: Encouraging students to use different forms of media and expression enriches their writing experience [LINK].
- Writing scaffolds: Providing structured support helps students gradually develop their writing skills [LINK].
- Authenticity: Engaging students in real-world writing projects makes learning more meaningful [LINK].
- Specific teacher instruction: Tailored writing instruction addresses the individual needs of multilingual students [LINK].
- Multilingual language approaches: Inviting students to use their knowledge of their home language(s) can enhance their writing skills [LINK & LINK].
These insights give primary teachers practical strategies to support multilingual students’ writing development in literacy lessons and other subject areas.
The role of the writing teacher
Teachers play a critical role in helping multilingual students develop their writing skills. How they view and support multilingualism in the classroom can make a big difference [LINK]. Some teachers create an environment that values students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, while others may overlook the benefits of children’s home language(s), seeing them as an inconvenience.
When teachers embrace students’ existing cultural and linguistic resources, students thrive as writers [LINK]. Teachers who reflect the realities of their pupils’ languages and use inclusive teaching methods, help students feel that their identities and experiences are important to their writing [LINK]. Most studies found that teachers made efforts to support multilingual students by moving beyond traditional monolingual teaching methods. These teachers:
- Use bilingual texts [LINK]
- Encouraged students to mix languages by translanguaging [LINK]
- Provided technology that supported language learning
- Support students to choose their own writing topics for class writing projects [LINK]
- Involved families as language resources
- Valued multilingual compositions [LINK]
Writing mentor texts
Using mentor texts is a key strategy for helping multilingual students improve their writing. These mentor texts can be published books, student-written pieces, wordless picture books, or texts produced by teachers or assistant teachers [LINK and LINK].
For example, in Hong’s study [LINK], a teacher used children’s literature and a previous student’s writing to help multilingual students write their own poetry. Mentor texts allow students to see the author’s craft, understand different genres, and learn how to structure their writing [LINK].
Students don’t just read these texts; they study them as writers, analysing how the authors constructed their writing [LINK]. Teachers can show children bilingual poetry before inviting them to make their own.
Creating multimodal texts
Students can create multimodal compositions, using various tools and resources like drawings [LINK], artefacts, and digital technology to express their ideas. Writing can be challenging for young students, but visual and multimodal projects give teachers a better understanding of students’ storytelling and writing skills beyond just words on a page [LINK].
- Inviting children to draw as part of their writing process was the most common form of multimodal work.
- Other teachers had students create presentations.
- Two studies involved using photography, where students took photos before writing personal narratives, adding a unique and engaging element to their work. Photography also helped students bring their cultural backgrounds into the classroom, making their learning more meaningful.
- Another project involved children creating bilingual eBooks with visual images and audio recordings.
Writing scaffolds
Using spoken language is crucial for multilingual students as they learn to write. Ongoing and collaborative conversations help students plan, draft, and edit their compositions [LINK]. For example, in peer-writing partnerships, students used their combined language skills to reflect on, evaluate, and improve their writing. This kind of interaction, often involving switching between languages, helped students solve problems and generate ideas. Encouraging students to talk through their writing process not only boosts their writing skills but also their verbal abilities [LINK].
Speech-to-text software can significantly improve the quality of students’ writing. Technology also helped students communicate and collaborate. For example, children can use Google Translate to talk and write with their classmates who speak different languages. However, it’s important to note that while technology can be beneficial, it has limitations. Younger students, for example, often perform better with paper and pencil than with digital devices. Teachers should carefully consider when and how to integrate technology, ensuring it enhances rather than hinders children’s writing development.
Scaffolds like graphic organisers can help students organise their thoughts before writing [LINK].
Authentic class writing projects
Authentic writing instruction is essential for all writers, including multilingual students. This involves making writing meaningful by connecting it to real purposes and audiences, and incorporating students’ lives and experiences into the writing classroom [LINK and LINK].
Writing with real purposes, like communicating a message or achieving a goal, deeply engages and motivates multilingual students. When students write about topics they care about, they see writing as important and powerful [LINK]. When teachers invite students to write about their own lives and backgrounds, students feel a sense of ownership over their writing. They begin to appreciate the diverse experiences within the classroom [LINK].
Teachers can encourage students to bring their communities, families, and outside experiences into the writing classroom [LINK]. For instance, one study found that when students used photography to capture their outside lives, their motivation and enjoyment for writing increased significantly. They wrote more and were eager to share their work with their peers.
Three studies specifically highlighted the benefits of writing for authentic audiences. One approach involved students rewriting and translating poems and songs shared by their families, positioning parents as literacy and language experts. Another study had students use message journals to communicate with their families, building literacy skills through real conversations. Some students even had multilingual pen pals, which gave them a genuine audience and reason to write, helping them understand different perspectives.
By connecting classroom writing to students’ outside worlds, teachers help students see the real value of writing skills [LINK]. Families also become partners in education, bringing valuable knowledge and expertise into the classroom.
Specific teacher instruction
While just teaching more words won’t solve all writing challenges for multilingual learners, there is a clear link between knowing more words and writing texts that people tend to appreciate more.
Another study explored the use of transition words and their effect on writing quality. It found that the more students used transition words, the higher their writing scores. Teaching students how to use these connecting words can make their writing flow better and improve their overall composition quality.
Multilingual language approaches
Teaching students to write in more than one language can boost their overall writing skills and cognitive flexibility.
Students often switch between languages (code-switching) or blend them (code-meshing) while writing. This practice, known as translanguaging, helps students use their entire language repertoire, improving their writing in the process [LINK].
Some students may initially hesitate to write in both languages due to dominant language ideologies or not seeing their bilingual skills as valuable in the classroom [LINK and LINK]. However, with the right support and teacher modelling, students can be encouraged to use all their language abilities. Teachers might need to use mentor texts and direct instruction to help students feel more comfortable and confident in their dual language writing [LINK].
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If you found this article useful, you may like to download our publication: A Teacher’s Guide To Writing With Multilingual Children