Language Development

Component 4: Language Development of Multilingual Learners

Standard 4.a: Multilingual children attend to, understand, and respond to increasingly complex language on a range of topics, including personally meaningful experiences and texts (including digital texts) in English and their home language(s).

In early-stage sequential multilingual development, multilingual children:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of age-appropriate language usage related to conversational as well as basic and advanced concepts in the home language(s)
  • Attend to English oral language in both real and pretend activities, relying on the intonation, facial expressions, and/or gestures of the speaker
  • Continue to make progress in their home language(s) attend to and participate in English language small- and large-group activities, such as circle time, storybook reading, etc.
  • Begin to follow simple directions in English, especially when they are accompanied by contextual cues, such as gestures, signs, pointing, and voice modulation
In mid-stage sequential multilingual development, multilingual children:
  • Continue to make progress in their home language
  • Demonstrate an understanding of English words for objects and actions and of English phrases encountered frequently in both real and pretend activities
  • Demonstrate an understanding of English words related to basic concepts (e.g., colors, some animal classifications, foods, etc.)
  • Respond appropriately to requests in English that involve one-step directions (e.g., “clean up”) when personally directed by others (these requests may occur with or without contextual cues)
In late-stage sequential multilingual development, multilingual children:
  • Demonstrate an understanding of a larger set of words in English and their home language(s) (for objects and actions, personal pronouns, and possessives) in both real and pretend activities
  • Demonstrate an understanding of words in English and their home language(s) related to more advanced concepts (e.g., abstract emotions and ideas)
  • Follow directions that involve a one- or two-step sequence, relying less on contextual cues
Note: Unlike most of the other developmental progressions in this document, the indicators for sequential multilingual development do not follow specific age thresholds. Multilingual Learners are exposed to second (or third) languages for the first time at different stages. One child may start the process of sequential multilingual learning at birth and another child may start at age four, making the age thresholds inappropriate. So instead of using age, the RIELDS use research-based stages to outline a child’s sequential multilingual development. There is no set time for how long it will take a given child to progress through these stages. Progress depends upon the child’s exposure to each language (English and home language(s)) in the home and other environments, the child’s motivation to learn English and their home language(s), and other factors. Practitioners (especially those who do not speak multiple languages) are encouraged to learn about multilingual children’s sequential multilingual development progress from parents and other family members.

Standard 4.b: Multilingual children become increasingly proficient in expressing their thoughts and ideas in English and their home language(s).

In early-stage sequential multilingual development, multilingual children:
  • Use nonverbal communication, such as gestures or behaviors, to seek attention, request objects, or initiate a response from others
  • Use age-appropriate vocabulary in their home language(s)
  • Listen and converse in their home language(s)
  • Use age-appropriate grammar in their home language(s)
  • Ask a variety of questions (e.g., “what,” “why,” “how,” “when,” and “where”) in their home language(s)
  • Use simple English expressions that are phonetically correct but may be inappropriate to the context of the conversation or the situation (pragmatically inappropriate, e.g., missing social, contextual, or self-referential cues)
In mid-stage sequential multilingual development, multilingual children:
  • Combine nonverbal with some verbal communication to be understood by others
  • Codeswitch (the mixing of two or more languages in the same utterance)
  • Use telegraphic speech (two-word phrases rather than full sentences, such as “want food”)
  • Use formulaic speech (expressions that are learned whole, e.g., “I don’t know”)
  • Use English vocabulary that mainly consists of concrete nouns and some verbs and pronouns
  • Converse with others in English using two or three words at a time and may switch back and forth between English and their home language(s)
  • Use some English grammatical markers (e.g., “-ing” or the plural-forming “-s”) and apply at times the rules of grammar of the home language to English
  • Use “what” and “why” questions in English, sometimes with errors
In late-stage sequential multilingual development, multilingual children:
  • Demonstrate increasing reliance on verbal communication in English and their home language(s) to be understood by others
  • Use new English vocabulary to share knowledge of concepts, including conversational and academic vocabulary
  • Sustain a conversation in English and their home language(s) with increasingly complex syntax, adding conjunctions, subject-verb-object patterns, and other more advanced elements of sentence construction
  • Expand their use of different forms of grammar in English (e.g., plurals; possessive pronouns; simple past-tense verbs), sometimes with errors
  • Use “what,” “why,” “how,” “when,” and “where” questions in more complete forms in English, sometimes with errors
Note: Unlike most of the other developmental progressions in this document, the indicators for sequential multilingual development do not follow specific age thresholds. Multilingual Learners are exposed to second (or third) languages for the first time at different stages. One child may start the process of sequential multilingual learning at birth and another child may start at age four, making the age thresholds inappropriate. So instead of using age, the RIELDS use research-based stages to outline a child’s sequential multilingual development. There is no set time for how long it will take a given child to progress through these stages. Progress depends upon the child’s exposure to each language (English and home language(s)) in the home and other environments, the child’s motivation to learn English and their home language(s), and other factors. Practitioners (especially those who do not speak multiple languages) are encouraged to learn about multilingual children’s sequential multilingual development progress from parents and other family members.
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