Key Words

Teachers must get involved in students' culture. By learning keywords from students' first language, teachers are performing a translanguaging strategy. Teachers will build strong relationships if they let students teach them words or general cultural practices from their native language. This translanguaging strategy helps build relationships with students and shows them how valuable and important their culture is in the classroom. For example, when covering foods from around the world, students can teach the teacher how to pronounce their favorite food, and the teacher can attempt to repeat the word so students see the teacher's effort in using their language. Also, teachers can label objects around the classroom in the languages they need to promote vocabulary acquisition in.