| Summary: | Second language learning and teaching language-minority preschoolers raises many questions for practitioners. Researchers in this field (Cummins &Swain : 1987, Cummins : 2000, Hélot : 2007) highlight the importance, with regard to the acquisition of the second language, of allowing these students to develop their first language. In order to accomplish this goal, the acknowledgment of the multilingual preschool environment appears to be a primary necessity as it would also allow for the possibility of dealing with the issue of academic failure. A French preschool teacher allows parents and pupils to express themselves in their first language(s). The teacher, who cooperates with a bilingual mediator, develops bilingual activities favoring the acquisition of French. An analysis focused on the preschoolers’ use of their first language(s) for class interactions as well as a second one focused on the oral productions of three Turkish-speaking preschoolers recalling stories enable us to better understand how languages circulate within the classroom and to measure their impact on the acquisition of the school’s language.
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