Book review: Educating young children with diverse languages and cultures by Karen N. Nemeth

Abstract

It is not an overstatement to say that teaching languages to young children with diverse backgrounds is challenging and dilemmatic for early childhood educators, particularly in addressing their unique needs. Limited research has been conducted to examine how early childhood education, teaching and care might address such issues. Karen Nemeth’s Educating Young Children with Diverse Languages and Cultures offers an insight into early childhood education for multilingual and/or bilingual children, and is therefore a must-read for early childhood educators. This book addresses issues related to the needs of children from diverse experiences, cultures, abilities and languages, with discussions of relevant competencies for the successful work of early childhood educators in inclusive and multidisciplinary perspectives on language development. It is worth noting that the title clearly addresses the content of the book: educating young children with diverse languages and cultures. The word ‘language’ is the central focus of this book, while ‘diversity’ is part of the discussion. The book starts with mentioning the core focus in the study of language development and its connections to all of the chapter topics, which is followed by a glossary of key terms and a list of essential competencies for early childhood educators. The remaining chapters correlate with the competencies that early childhood educators must uphold, such as how to support language development (chapter 2), how to get started as an early childhood educator (chapter 3), how to recognise the elements of a high-quality curriculum (chapter 3), and how to meet individual needs, the environment and materials, and family and community (chapters 4, 5 and 6, respectively). The following two chapters (chapters 7 and 8) discuss processes and practices for co-teaching and collaborating, as well as professional ethics and teacher dispositions in early childhood education. The last chapter (chapter 9) revisits the content of the preceding chapters from the perspectives of school administrators, teacher preparation instructors and professional development providers. The key contribution of this book is its concise description of language development and its links to becoming an early childhood educator with an eye towards success and resilience in a changing field. In the midst of shifting public opinion and attitudes towards teaching young children with diverse languages, early childhood educators may be perplexed about how to prepare for early childhood education while taking into account all of the needs of diverse children. Nemeth says: ‘Not every early childhood educator needs to be an expert in everything, but they do need to have the confidence to deal with every child’ (2). This book offers practical information for families and early childhood educators in maintaining and developing young children’s languages. For the Book review