Supporting Harmonious Bilingualism in European early childhood education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12697/eha.2025.13.2.02bKeywords:
early childhood education, bilingual, children, equityAbstract
This article starts from the assumption that all children in early education need an equitable chance to learn. For this to be possible, they need to feel comfortable and secure. For children who have a home language that is not the school language (even if they also hear the school language at home) the frequent ignoring of those non-school languages in early education does not contribute to children’s well-being or solid social integration. Fortunately, through a Language-Considerate Approach, children with a non-school language at home can experience Harmonious Bilingualism from early on. In this educational approach all children’s languages are actively considered, thereby valuing those languages and, importantly, their child speakers.
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