For many three-year-olds growing up in the UK, it’s challenging enough to learn and master one language, usually English. Yet there’s another rising demographic of young children who are acquiring and absorbing vocabulary from multiple languages before they even start primary school.
In 2021 there were around 6 million people with non-British nationality living in the UK, with 9.6m people born abroad – 35% of whom live in London. In the social sciences, this relatively new landscape of such diverse national origins is often referred to as “superdiversity” – a term coined by the German anthropologist Professor Steven Vertovec. The UK’s superdiversity is reflected in our school system, with around 20% of pupils speaking English as an additional language. In London schools, more than 300 different languages are spoken.
