Inviting a visitor into the classroom can be an effective strategy to teach language and culture. Parents can be a resource and add genuine understanding to the background of a student in the classroom as well as increase the rapport and collaboration between parent and teacher. Other visitors could be diverse professionals, community workers or neighbors. Hearing visitors discuss their cultural backgrounds, experiences, and customs and traditions from a firsthand source in their community gives students perspective that couldn't be gained elsewhere. Visitors may also display artifacts and clothing, or let students sample food or hear music from their culture. In addition to culture and language knowledge, children can gain influential and inspiring positive role models through this experience.
Music introduces new languages in a way that is easily accessible and memorable for preschoolers. Greetings, stories, anecdotes and special events are common musical themes that lend themselves well to a preschool curriculum. Simple cultural dances are engaging for preschool students and fit naturally with gross motor skill development. Traditional instruments can be used and will fit in with typical language skills study such as opposites (for example, loud and soft or fast and slow).
Classroom print can easily include multiple languages. Teachers can utilize object labels, content posters and artwork in multiple languages. Books in other languages or with more than one language side by side are potential resources. Other options to consider are texts that include diverse characters and situations, or to cover preschool curriculum using examples from different cultures. Engaging read-aloud books with traditional stories, fairy tales or folk tales can expose students to great children’s literature from around the world.
Special events or holidays offer opportunities to explore cultures and languages. Looking at celebratory events in a culture, especially those that are representative of classroom members, can be an engaging opportunity for students to experience food, crafts, stories, music and customs from another perspective. Decorations and costumes created in art can add to student understanding. This can often open the door for students to compare and contrast cultures. Taking time to answer questions during this stage is important as students learn to relate to one another and understand how to discuss differences in an appropriate and empathetic manner.