Early Language Learning & Multilingual Education Network

ABSTRACT

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As multilingualism becomes a defining feature of early childhood education, the need for well-prepared educators has never been greater. However, teacher education programs often lag behind the realities of multilingual preschools, relying on outdated monolingual or second-language acquisition models rather than embracing dynamic, plurilingual pedagogies. This presentation critically examines whether current teacher education models equip educators—including generalist early childhood teachers and EFL specialists—to navigate the complexities of multilingual early years education, or whether they remain anchored in past frameworks. 

 

​Drawing on international examples of teacher education and findings from the LEyLA research project (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Ref. PID2021-123055NB-I00), this presentation explores how teachers’ conceptions of multilingualism shape their approaches to multilingual education in early childhood settings. Utilising a mixed-method approach, we will underscore the competences identified by teachers themselves as crucial for effective work in linguistically diverse classrooms. By developing a framework that reflects the linguistic realities of today’s—and tomorrow’s—classrooms, we can provide teachers with the tools they need to foster multilingualism effectively. 

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This talk will challenge policymakers, researchers, and teacher educators to adopt this new framework and develop teacher education models that genuinely reflect the linguistic realities of multilingual early childhood education. 

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BIO

 

Dr. Beatriz Cortina-Pérez is an Associated Professor in the Department of Language and Literature Education at the University of Granada, lecturing in the degrees of Pre- primary and Primary Education, and in several postgraduate programmes. She has numerous publications, many of them indexed in JCR journals, as well as collaborating with national and international journals in their editorial committees. Her field of study focuses on foreign language education at early years, specifically CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), teaching English at preschool, and research and innovation in language teaching. She has recently published Springer International Handbook of CLIL in Pre-primary Education. She is currently the PI of the R+D+i LEyLA project "Design of a teaching profile for Early Childhood Education from a plurilingual approach: learning foreign and additional languages" funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.