My story, my history: on multilingual stories and storytelling
Dr Sabine Little (University of Sheffield)
Stories and storytelling are deeply rooted in early childhood, ideally both at home and in formal education settings. However, for multilingual children, they can also represent some of the earliest experiences of language separation —being expected to use different languages, and thus different parts of their identity, in different contexts. In this keynote, I will draw on a range of projects and initiatives that use stories, reading, and storytelling to break down linguistic barriers in formal early childhood education. These efforts support playful multilingual development and lay the foundation for integrating multiple languages into everyday classroom life. More importantly, I will explore how we might work with children directly – as partners and co-researchers – to learn from them and with them.