When we make a language mistake, we may feel uncomfortable. This discomfort can be productive. It can lead to reflection, correction and even growth. But sometimes what emerges is not discomfort, it is shame. And sometimes it is anxiety or guilt. These experiences are related, but they are not the same. Language Guilt and Language […]
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Why Reading Skills Don’t Automatically Transfer Across Languages
A persistent belief in literacy education is that “once a child can read, they can read any language”. Decades of cross-linguistic research show that this assumption is misleading (e.g. Seymour, Aro & Erskine, 2003; Share, 2008). The way we learn to read is deeply shaped by the architecture of writing systems. Alphabetic scripts like English, […]
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Working with Dominant Language Constellations and Language Timelines©
My work with multilingual families is grounded in the conviction that multilingual development can only be understood when languages are seen in relation to each other, to life domains, and to lived experience.
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Multilingual Teens and Literacy: Embracing Asynchronous Growth
Multiliteracy is a tremendous asset for our children – but the path to becoming literate in more than one language is rarely straightforward. For teenagers especially, literacy development is shaped by motivation, school requirements, and the unique characteristics of each language
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The Internet of the 16th Century
When we think of the internet today, we imagine a network that connect people, ideas, knowledge across the globe. In the 16th century, however, a different but equally informative network emerged in Europe: the printing press. For the first time in European history, texts could be reproduced quickly and distributed widely, connecting scholars, merchants and religious communities across borders.
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