Embracing languages and cultures in the magic preschool, Moscow.

At the 2004 Annual Conference in New Orleans, I was fortunate to meet teachers from Russia. During numerous professional discussions, I found their preschool philosophy and practices related to diverse languages and cultures invaluable and so wish to share them in this column.

To respond to the political, ideological, and economic changes in Russia, a UNESCO-assisted private preschool for children ages 2 to 7 was founded in 1993 in Moscow. Their philosophy and curriculum have roots in traditional Russian education, as well as in contemporary theories and research in early childhood education. A balance of activities, including music, drama, arts, Russian literacy activities, and English as a foreign language, ensures that children develop in a holistic manner. This international preschool, enrolling children from Russia, the United States, Germany, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, and Japan, provides a multilingual and multicultural environment of learning. Therefore, children experience an appreciation of diversity as a natural framework of their everyday life. The director, Manana Salakaya, and the teachers shared the following approaches and strategies for culturally and linguistically responsive early education.

Immersion in Diverse Cultures

Most children at the preschool are new to the Russian culture and unfamiliar with the language. Teachers are aware of the overwhelming amount of new social, cultural, and linguistic impressions that children encounter in the process of acculturation. They refer to this as a "double move." A child from Mexico must learn a new language, and also about snow, cold, and winter; a child from Japan is getting familiar with Russian food; and a child from Italy is learning about diverse physical features of people. In addition to providing this natural exposure to diversity, teachers carefully guide children by using children's literature that represents people from diverse cultures (Jalongo, 2004), and role play folktales in national costumes. To gain an in-depth understanding of the values and beliefs of diverse cultures, a mother and child from Argentina started to write and illustrate a fairy tale and invited all families to create pages in harmony with their own cultures (Salakaya, Strekalova, & Larina, 2005).

Maintaining the Heritage Language

The preschool employs Russian as the language of instruction and English as a foreign language. Activities offered in the Creative Studio are first carried out in several languages to accommodate children s native language needs. However, Russian is gradually introduced and used in activities with lots of pictures, puppets, and toys to facilitate comprehension in an age-appropriate manner (Cummins, 1984). Teachers build the language learning process, both Russian and English, on the foundation of concrete concepts familiar in the native languages, using shapes, animals, and family members. For example, to enable non-Russian-speaking children to decode words, Russian-speaking children are asked to pretend to be a fox while the teacher demonstrates the word in Russian. Also, songs, poems, rhymes, and dialogs in the housekeeping area, accompanied with gestures and movement, facilitate proper pronunciation, comprehension, and language production.

In harmony with researchers (Cummins, 2001; Thomas & Collier, 1997), teachers at Magic Preschool truly believe that an environment rich in linguistic and cultural experiences can contribute the most to children's cognitive growth, creativity, character, and identity development. From a very young age, these children are developing skills and abilities essential in a global world.

References

Cummins, J. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon. England: Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Jalongo, M. (2004). Young children and picture books. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Salakaya, M., Strekalova, E., & Larina. O. (2005. February). The moving force of different thought systems in multicultural groups. Paper presented at the annual conference of Florida Association for Childhood Education International, Fort Myers.

Thomas, W. P., & Collier. V. (1997). School effectiveness for language minority students. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.

--Tunde Szecsi, International/Intercultural Committee