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Future Preschool Teachers’ Perspectives on Integrating Multicultural and Multilingual Content

on a framework integrating six dimensions: the journey metaphor, exposure
to linguistic diversity, exposure to cultural diversity, concrete to symbolic
level, effective foreign language teaching approaches, and children’s partic-
ipation. The model provides a strong conceptual framework based on the
journey metaphor, through which the children ‘travel’ to different countries
and thus experience languages and cultures through multi-sensory percep-
tions (including singing, movement, tasting, and artistic expression). During
their ‘travel,’ children are exposed to linguistic diversity, with English serv-
ing as a lingua franca, and other languages presented through songs and
rhymes. They also encounter a puppet (JeguljaKlepetulja,ChattyBetty)which
helps them develop linguistic and phonological awareness in a variety of
languages (comparing words and sounds of languages, counting syllables,
learning common phrases, etc.). Exposure to cultural diversity is facilitated
in different ways: through singing, dancing, storytelling, videos, art, etc. chil-
dren learn about topics such as food, clothing, sports and music. The model
(Bratož and Sila 2022b) also suggests a gradual progress from the concrete
to the symbolic level of content, by children starting the journey with con-
crete items, such as a passport, and later learning about abstract concepts
(such as country, language, capital city, anthem, flag, president) through con-
crete visual/multimodal support (maps, videos, concrete items). In this way,
children learn about abstract concepts through play. Activities in the model
rely on a combination of effective foreign language learning approaches
for young and very young learners, such as CLIL (Content and Language In-
tegrated Learning), developed by Coyle, Hood, and Marsh (2010), and the
TPR (Total Physical Response), developed by Asher (1969). Additionally, the
model strongly emphasises children’s participation, which, according to Ru-
tar(2014),isconsideredavitalelement ofan inclusivesociety,wherechildren,
too, should be acknowledged as active participants. Children’s participation
in the model is encouraged by the teacher, where children, having experi-
enced the journey to various countries, together with their teacher design
new activities, make rhymes and chants in other languages and suggest new
destinations they would like to discover.

Methodology
In our research, we carried out a qualitative study aimed at (1) identifying
the attitudes of pre-service preschool teachers towards integrating multilin-
gual and multicultural content in kindergarten activities, (2) exploring the
respondents’ perceptions of their own competencies for successful integra-
tion of multilingual and multicultural content in their work, and (3) deter-

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