Xiao-lei Wang - Trilingual Learners

The speaker, a professor at Pace University, discusses her interest in multilingual development, influenced by her personal background and decision to raise her children in three languages: French, Chinese, and English. She shares experiences of misconceptions faced by multilingual families, such as assumptions about language development issues. The speaker emphasizes the enriched environment multilingual children experience and advocates for leveraging home language resources in education to enhance learning.

What motivated the speaker to become interested in multilingual development?

• Her husband's language skills

• Her children's trilingual upbringing

• Her research on nonverbal communication

• Her own multilingual upbringing

What was the concern of the speech pathologist regarding the speaker's child?

• The child did not open his mouth wide enough

• The child was not speaking enough languages

• The child was not reading in English

• The child was mixing languages

How did the speaker respond to the teacher's suggestion about reading to her children?

• She ignored the suggestion

• She agreed to read more in English

• She explained they read in French and Chinese

• She decided to hire a tutor

What does the speaker believe about the environment of multilingual children?

• It is confusing for them

• It is enriched and beneficial

• It is similar to monolingual environments

• It hinders their academic progress

What does the speaker suggest teachers should do with children's home language resources?

• Use them to enhance academic language learning

• Replace them with school language

• Ignore them and focus on English

• Limit their use to home settings