The language practices used by teachers in schools directly impact the language development and reading performance of multilingual children. Despite the important effect of teacher language choices on children’s language learning, there is a considerable need to better understand what constitutes effective multilingual language practices for teachers. This study uses teacher inquiry to examine the language practices multilingual early childhood teachers develop, implement, and refine when supported to critically examine their teaching practice. Participants were five multilingual early childhood teachers with varying language histories, program settings, and professional experiences. Findings describe themes that capture the key practices and guiding ideas from the knowledge developed by these teachers. These themes provide guidance on practices that can leverage the language capacities of multilingual teachers and show ways that multilingual teachers can make language choices that support multilingual learners. This study centers multilingual teachers’ voices and knowledge about language and culture, and highlights the critical role of teachers as producers of new knowledge and language practices.

中文翻译：

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支持多语种学习者的教师语言实践：多语种幼儿教师基于课堂的方法

学校教师使用的语言实践直接影响多语种儿童的语言发展和阅读表现。尽管教师语言选择对儿童的语言学习有重要影响，但仍然需要更好地理解教师有效的多语言实践的构成要素。本研究使用教师探究来检查多语种幼儿教师在支持批判性地检查他们的教学实践时开发、实施和改进的语言实践。参与者是五名具有不同语言历史、课程设置和专业经验的多语种幼儿教师。调查结果描述了从这些教师发展的知识中捕捉关键实践和指导思想的主题。这些主题为可以利用多语种教师的语言能力的实践提供指导，并展示多语种教师可以做出支持多语种学习者的语言选择的方法。本研究以多语言教师的声音和关于语言和文化的知识为中心，并强调教师作为新知识和语言实践的生产者的关键作用。