Lost in Translation

Mina sat quietly during the science lesson on plants—hood up and pulled tightly around her head, doodling spirals in the margins of her notebook. Her duotang was open to a worksheet filled with words like photosynthesis, chloroplasts, glucose, and oxygen. The teacher asked how plants use sunlight to grow. Hands shot up. Mina kept hers tucked tightly in her lap, hoping the teacher’s eyes would pass over her.

She wasn’t ignoring the teacher. Rather, Mina was thinking of plants from home, like the flowy palm trees and prickly cacti that were scattered across her front lawn; she didn’t connect with the maple tree outside the window in the same way. Mina was also untangling the teacher’s question, searching for English words to explain her thinking. In her mind, the process was clear: she could picture sunlight soaking into green leaves and chloroplasts making glucose like little factory workers. By the time she pieced together how to explain photosynthesis, the class had already moved on to the next task.

When the teacher walked by, he noticed her quietness and doodling and kindly exclaimed, “Mina, please take off your hood and make sure you are participating.” It looked like disengagement. It looked like she wasn’t trying. And it looked like she didn’t care.

The Danger of Deficit Thinking

“Students who have been failed by schools predominantly come from communities whose languages, cultures and identities have been disparaged and devalued in the wider society… ignoring or dismissing the knowledge and cultural values of minoritised communities” (Cummins, 2021, p. 71).

The misperception of multilingual learners’ engagement, or lack thereof, and understanding is a common narrative perpetuated in Canadian classrooms. However, there is more to the story as experienced teachers know. Often, the reality is not that multilingual learners do not conceptually understand; it’s that they do not yet have the vocabulary to participate, or the instruction could be more culturally relevant. Educators’ varying beliefs about multilingual learners’ competencies impact their experiences and success within the classroom.

This article challenges deficit perceptions of multilingual learners through a classroom vignette and research evidence. It highlights linguistic and cultural barriers, affirms multilingual strengths, and emphasizes intentional, culturally responsive, multimodal vocabulary instruction as essential for access, identity affirmation, engagement, and equitable academic success in Canadian classrooms.

Recognizing the Realities of Multilingual Learners

Statistics Canada (2023) reports that one in five Canadian households is multilingual which has clear implications in schools for language use, home-school connections, and family engagement. The most commonly discussed challenges faced by multilingual learners include language barriers in academic settings, limited culturally responsive pedagogy, inequitable access to resources, and cultural identity.

Multilingual learners often face difficulties in mastering academic English, which can hinder performance in content-based curricular subjects such as science, social studies, and mathematics (Cummins, 2021). Further, some educators may hold unconscious biases or low expectations for multilingual learners, which can affect student engagement and outcomes; culturally responsive pedagogy combats this by recognizing linguistic assets rather than deficits (Sathiyaraj et al., 2025). In schools across the country, there may be a lack of access to appropriate instructional materials or translation support for multilingual learners. Multilingual learners in Canada may also struggle to maintain their home language and cultural identity while adapting to dominant school norms (Schnider, 2018).

Despite these commonly held notions, multilingual learners often develop strong executive functioning skills such as attention control, task switching, and working memory as they manage multiple linguistic systems (Evans, 2019). In a recent Ontario study, multilingual learners had a distinct ability to reflect on and manipulate language structures, which supports reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and grammar acquisition across languages (Kerekes et al. 2022). When supported with intentional, multimodal, and interactive supports, multilingual learners are capable of making strides in their vocabulary capacities, supporting their overall academic growth (Rad, 2026).

The perceived profile of the multilingual learner is shifting as they demonstrate cognitive, academic and language-rich competencies. Multilingual learners can thrive in inclusive and linguistically diverse classrooms. As educators, we should be reflecting on how we can design culturally responsive vocabulary instruction that helps multilingual learners develop transferable skills and abstract reasoning, while affirming their identities, fostering a sense of belonging, and building academic resilience.

From Perceived Disengagement to Hidden Understanding

Some educators comment that multilingual learners “don’t do anything” or “don’t participate.” Yet, if we pause and reframe, we might ask: how can students meaningfully participate when they do not yet understand the words being used during instruction? For example, we might seek to provide instruction that is engaging, culturally appropriate and targeted to content area vocabulary that does leverage multilingual learners’ interests and background knowledge. When we shift our perspective in this way, what appears to be disengagement or incompetence is often revealed as a lack of access. Students are not opting out of learning. Rather, they are navigating content without the linguistic tools or cultural context needed to fully participate.

Consider a student who, when writing about where igneous rocks come from during a science lesson, framed their hands in a peak and mimicked an explosion, asking, “What is…when…?” With a quick visual and the word “volcano,” the student immediately exclaimed, “Yes, that’s it!” and promptly finished their response. In that moment, the barrier was not curiosity or willingness to engage, but access to vocabulary. This interaction illuminates that students are often thinking deeply, but without the language to express their ideas, their engagement can go unnoticed.

Research reinforces the importance of leveraging students’ full linguistic repertoires. For decades, Jim Cummins (2021) has described the rich resources and cognitive capital of multilingual learners. There is academic transfer across languages as skills learned in one language (e.g., decoding, narrative story structure) can transfer to another. This concept of transfer is especially relevant when teaching vocabulary. For example, during a unit on habitats in my classroom, a Spanish-speaking student recognized the Spanish root carne within the English word carnivore, helping them deduce that the term refers to animals that eat meat. This moment not only supported conceptual understanding but also affirmed the value of the student’s first language as a powerful academic tool.

Cummins (2021) highlights that “it is much more common today for educators to encourage parents and caregivers to use the home language consistently with their children to build up a strong conceptual foundation capable of sustaining academic development in both languages” (p. 34). When educators actively incorporate home languages through cognates, translation, and discussion, they are not only building vocabulary but strengthening conceptual understanding and identity. An emphasis on multilingual education has been associated with improved outcomes in mathematics, science, and problem-solving driven by strengthened abstract reasoning and symbolic understanding (UNESCO, 2024).

Culturally Responsive Teaching that Fosters Belonging

However, educators have noted that vocabulary instruction must be intentional and culturally responsive. For example, multilingual learners benefit from repeated exposure, opportunities to use new words in context, and multimodal supports such as visuals, gestures, and real-life connections (ETFO, 2023). Personal connections to vocabulary are equally powerful. As an illustration, when reflecting on a lesson on landforms, it is important to provide students with opportunities to connect this to their lived experiences, rather than making connections within an exclusively Canadian context. These moments of relevance are critical, anchoring new vocabulary in lived experience, making it more likely to be retained and applied.

Culturally responsive instruction also requires educators to adjust their practices to incorporate students’ identities and experiences. For instance, when I was teaching about stable structures, we explored significant buildings from students’ home countries. Watching their eyes light up with familiarity was an important reminder to celebrate everyone. This approach is not only about language acquisition, but it is also about identity and belonging. When students see their cultures and experiences reflected in the curriculum, they are more likely to feel valued. As Cummins (2021) notes, “students develop the belief that they have the ability to succeed academically, and as a result, they engage academically to a much greater extent than when their identities are implicitly or explicitly devalued” (p. 81). In other words, identity affirmation is directly linked to academic engagement and resilience.

Data from Statistics Canada (2023) further supports this connection, noting that multilingual learners often develop strong intercultural awareness and empathy. As well, maintaining one’s home language supports identity formation and family cohesion, which are linked to academic resilience (Statistics Canada, 2023). In a post-pandemic context, where many students have experienced disruptions to learning and social connection, the good work that educators are doing to foster a sense of belonging and empathy is more important than ever.

The Power of Asset-Oriented, Responsive Instruction

Importantly, many educators across Canadian classrooms are already engaging in culturally and linguistically responsive, asset-oriented practices that support multilingual learners in meaningful ways. Teachers adapt instruction through the inclusion of visuals, increased gesturing, translanguaging opportunities, collaborative learning, and relationship-building practices that honour students’ identities and lived experiences. In many schools, educators intentionally seek out culturally responsive resources, invite students’ home languages into the classroom, and create learning environments where multilingual learners feel competent and appreciated. These practices reflect a growing recognition that multilingualism is not a barrier to overcome, but an intellectual and cultural strength that enriches classroom communities for everyone.

From Misperceptions to Meaningful Inclusion

Ultimately, dismantling some of the misperceptions about multilingual learners will take intentional effort to incorporate their linguistic and cultural identities. While teaching vocabulary will support participation, it is not a quick fix; ostensibly, it is a deliberate and ongoing process. When done thoughtfully, culturally responsive instruction unlocks access to content, strengthens cognitive skills, and affirms students’ identities. By leveraging students’ linguistic resources, connecting learning to their experiences, and creating supportive, culturally responsive environments, educators can move beyond assumptions of disengagement and instead cultivate classrooms where all learners can thrive.

Through these practical applications, we not only support multilingual learners in developing transferable skills and abstract reasoning, but we also empower them to see themselves as capable, valued members of the school community. Many educators are already demonstrating what this work can look like in practice through responsive teaching, relationship-building, inclusive instructional design, and celebrating students’ strengths. Continuing to share these practices across schools will help ensure that multilingual learners experience classrooms not as spaces where they must overcome deficits, but as environments where their linguistic and cultural identities are recognized as assets. See the sidebar box for suggestions to consider for practice.

A Call to Action: Embracing Multilingualism

 Deconstructing misperceptions about multilingual learners requires sustained and intentional action. While vocabulary instruction can support access and participation, it is not an immediate solution; instead, it is a deliberate and ongoing pedagogical commitment. When culturally responsive instruction is thoughtfully enacted, it expands access to curriculum, strengthens cognitive development, and affirms students’ linguistic and cultural identities.

Beyond individual classrooms, this work speaks to a global educational imperative. In an increasingly multilingual world, schools and districts must move away from deficit-oriented assumptions and towards recognizing multilingualism as an intellectual, cultural, and social asset. Educators have a responsibility to design learning environments that honour students’ linguistic repertoires and lived experiences. Encouragingly, many teachers are already leading this shift through compassionate, reflective, and responsive practices. Building upon this foundation will help create school communities where multilingual learners are empowered to thrive. By doing so, schools can contribute not only to academic success but to more inclusive and socially responsive educational communities.

Reflection Questions

• In your classroom, what assumptions might you be making about multilingual students’ abilities or understanding?
• How does your current instructional approach create or limit access to content learning for multilingual learners?
• In what ways do you affirm students’ linguistic and cultural identities, and where might you need to create stronger connections to students’ lived experiences?

References

Cummins, J. (2021). Rethinking the education of multilingual learners: A critical analysis of theoretical concepts. Toronto: Multilingual Matters.

Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. (2023). Supporting multilingual language learners: Translanguaging. ETFO Voice. https://etfovoice.ca/sites/default/files/docs/curriculum/ETFO_Voice_Fall_2023_Curriculum_v2.pdf

Evans, M. (2019). Multilingualism in the classroom: Benefits in education and policy recommendations. Cambridge University Press. www.cambridge.org/ca/partnership/research/Multilingualism-in-the-classroom-benefits-in-education-and-policy-recommendations

Kerekes, J., Rajendram, S., Adjetey-Nii Owoo, M., & Zhang, Y. (2022). Teachers’ takes on supporting multilingual learners in K–12 classrooms in Ontario. TESL Canada, 38(1), 1-27. doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v38i1.1365

Rad, Z. (2026). Empowering multilingual language learners: Evidence‑based strategies for inclusive support. Support for Learning, 41(1). doi.org/10.1111/1467-9604.70028

Sathiyaraj, A., Deivam, M., & Kavya, T. (2025). Navigating multilingual classrooms: expectations, opportunities, and challenges in inclusive pedagogy. Journal of Teaching English Language and Literature, 50, 135-143. ISSN: 2229-6557.

Schnider, R. (2018). Misconceptions about multilingualism. Language Portal of Canada. www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/en/blogue-blog/multilinguisme-multilingualism-eng

Statistics Canada (2023). Multilingualism of Canadian households.  https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-X/2021014/98-200-X2021014-eng.cfm

UNESCO (2024). Multilingual education: A key to quality and inclusive learning. www.unesco.org/en/articles/multilingual-education-key-quality-and-inclusive-learning

Meet the Expert(s)

Montana Nethercott

Elementary School Teacher and Researcher

Montana Nethercott is an elementary educator with experience across K-8 classrooms, as well as a teaching and research assistant in the Department of Educational Studies at Brock University. Her research explores literacy development among multilingual learners, informed by her recent experience teaching in a linguistically diverse classroom. She advocates for equitable literacy instruction through the integration of technology to create accessible learning materials.

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Dr. Tiffany L. Gallagher

Professor, Dept. of Educational Studies and Director, Brock Learning Lab, Brock University

Tiffany L. Gallagher is a Professor in the Department of Education Studies. She is recognized for her research on students with literacy learning challenges and supporting the self-efficacy and professional learning of educators through literacy, inclusion, and technology coaching. Longitudinal, mixed methods, and multi-varied participant perspectives are the cornerstone of Tiffany’s research projects. Her work seeks to inform targeted audiences such as students, tutors, parents, teachers, administrators, and policy makers. Tiffany is also the Director of the Brock Learning Lab that offers community-based tutoring for K-12 students and mentors undergraduate volunteer tutors.

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