-01.png)
Multilingual Inclusion: What Schools Need to Let Go of — and What Will Move Learning Forward
- Anna Leaman
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Multilingual inclusion is now firmly established in the language of schools. It appears in policies, development plans, and strategic conversations, often with confidence and good intent. Yet when we look beyond what is written and towards what learners experience each day, a more demanding question comes into focus: is inclusion actively shaping learning, participation, and opportunity — or is it largely symbolic?
Across many international and independent schools, the challenge is no longer awareness. It is alignment. Practices designed for a different pupil profile are still in place, even as school communities become more linguistically and culturally complex. Some of these practices continue to support learning well. Others subtly limit access, slow progress, and place unnecessary pressure on teachers and students alike.
What matters now is discernment. Understanding which assumptions, systems, and habits are worth holding onto — and which need to be released so learning can move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and pace.
As an English teacher at heart, I love metaphor and symbolism. Framing this reflection through the Lunar New Year feels fitting, particularly as it marks a shift in energy and direction. At its core, this is a conversation about attention: how, amid the busyness of everyday school life, leaders create space to consider which beliefs or approaches have outlived their usefulness, and how deliberate choices are made about what comes next in order to extend students’ potential.
This year’s transition is often described as a movement from the Snake, associated with shedding and release, to the Horse, symbolising momentum and purposeful forward movement. You do not need to follow the lunar calendar to recognise the leadership value in this rhythm. Schools, too, benefit from moments where they step back, examine what has become fixed or habitual, and then move forward with greater coherence.
For schools working seriously on multilingual inclusion, this is one of those points. The work ahead is not about doing more, but about doing differently: releasing assumptions and systems that no longer serve increasingly diverse learners, and strengthening those that genuinely accelerate learning, participation, and belonging.
The Work of the Snake: What No Longer Serves
Progress in multilingual inclusion rarely stalls because of lack of care. More often, it slows because assumptions that once felt sensible are no longer fit for purpose. The work of the Snake is about recognising where these assumptions have become restrictive — and having the confidence to release them.
So, what could this include?
1) Deficit views of language and learning
Multilingual learners are still too often described in terms of what they lack: English proficiency, academic vocabulary, confidence. Over time, this framing shapes expectations, access to the curriculum, and decisions about support. Whether consciously or not, it influences how teachers perceive learners’ potential.
Decades of research in multilingual education tell a consistent story. Jim Cummins’ work demonstrates that language development and cognitive development are inseparable. Learners develop academic language most effectively through meaningful, intellectually demanding learning — not by waiting until their English is considered “ready”.
Asset-based approaches build on this understanding. They recognise that multilingual learners bring linguistic, cultural, and cognitive resources that actively support learning across the curriculum. When these assets are overlooked, schools do not raise standards by default; they simply narrow opportunity.
Letting go of deficit thinking is not a quick fix. It requires deliberate leadership: noticing where expectations have tightened, where support has become intervention-led rather than enabling, and where outdated narratives no longer reflect the learners in front of us.
2) Silence mistaken for learning
Quiet classrooms are often interpreted as productive ones. Many of us (myself included in the past) have taken comfort in orderly lessons and assumed learning was taking place.
For multilingual learners, silence more commonly signals uncertainty: about language, about expectations, or about whether their contribution will be valued. Without structured opportunities to think aloud, rehearse ideas, and test language in low-risk ways, participation becomes optional rather than expected.
Neil Mercer’s research on exploratory talk shows that structured dialogue improves reasoning, language development, and attainment. Talk is a route into learning. Like James Britton says, "Reading floats on a sea of talk" (Britton, 1970, p. 164). Participation and learning does not happen by chance. It is designed through task structure, questioning, modelling, and classroom culture. Where this design is absent, classrooms might remain calm; but learning is probably static.
3) Systems that prioritise sameness over access
Treating all students the same can feel fair. However in practice, uniform tasks and assessments often measure English proficiency rather than subject understanding.
Drawing on Luis Moll’s Funds of Knowledge, we understand that students bring rich cultural and linguistic resources that can strengthen learning across the curriculum. When systems fail to make use of these assets, attention shifts to attainment data instead of to the conditions that enable equitable access to learning.
This, too, is Snake work: recognising where systems have hardened, where compliance has replaced curiosity, and where shedding is needed to allow growth — not only for learners, but for teachers navigating increasingly complex classrooms.
The Work of the Horse: What Schools Are Ready to Strengthen
If the Snake invites release, the Horse brings a different energy: momentum, alignment, and forward movement. Across the UK and internationally, schools are increasingly shifting from isolated EAL provision to whole-school multilingual inclusion. When this happens, we can see that the pace changes.
So what is ready to be strengthened?
1) Asset-based pedagogy
When students’ languages, cultures, and experiences are treated as resources, classrooms function differently: participation increases; teachers plan with greater precision; and assessment begins to reflect learning more accurately.
This can help to remove unnecessary barriers so learners can move at pace towards ambitious outcomes: academically, linguistically, and socially.
2) Language-rich teaching across the curriculum
In schools where multilingual learners thrive, language development is planned deliberately in every subject. Structured talk, explicit modelling, and carefully scaffolded reading and writing are built into everyday teaching, so learners can access subject knowledge and express their thinking with increasing independence.
Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation consistently shows the impact of these approaches, particularly for children who are learning English. When language is designed into teaching, progress accelerates and reliance on reactive intervention reduces.
This is forward motion through intention, not additional workload.
3) Participation, representation, and belonging
Belonging is not abstract. It is visible in who speaks, whose knowledge is recognised, and who feels confident enough to contribute.
Schools are increasingly paying attention to participation and belonging because these experiences are closely linked to attendance, persistence, and academic risk-taking. Traditional indicators — attainment, behaviour, attendance — rarely capture this nuance.
As a result, many schools are now gathering richer data to understand inclusion as it is experienced, not just recorded. One of our favourites is the award-winning GEC Platform developed by the Global Equality Collective, who empower hundreds of schools globally see whose voices are present, whose are missing, and how inclusion is lived across the community. As Dr Nicole Ponsford from the GEC explains, this is "inclusion as a data gap, not a narrative" - a vital shift that leads to action and impact for our multilingual communities.
A Strategic Lens
At EAL Inclusive, we work with schools that want progress they can sustain. Across contexts, the same enabling conditions appear again and again:
Leadership aligned around a clear, inclusive vision
A shared understanding of multilingual and asset-based pedagogy
Teaching that adapts to real learners, not assumed ones
Strong collaboration and professional confidence
Explicit attention to essential learning skills
Deep knowledge of students as whole children
When these elements are in place, schools move forward with purpose rather than pressure. Outdated models of deficit thinking and siloed support begin to fall away naturally: replaced by coherent, confident practice across the school.
A Closing Reflection
The Snake and the Horse offer a useful reminder. Progress is not only about movement. It also depends on knowing what to release before moving forward.
So:
Which assumptions are shaping decisions about multilingual learners (and which are now limiting progress?)
What, if strengthened at a whole-school level, would most accelerate learning and participation?
Where would greater strategic clarity enable staff to act with confidence and consistency across the school?
Multilingual inclusion is not a question of just intent, but of alignment too. When schools take time to examine what they have inherited, release what no longer serves their communities, and strengthen what genuinely enables learning, momentum follows. The next step is leadership: choosing where to focus, where to invest, and how to move forward with clarity (together and with a shared purpose).
Comments