Home Languages, or Heritage Languages (HL), are mother tongues other than the national language, spoken at home and passed down through generations within a family or cultural community. It may not be the first language, but it's an important part of one's cultural identity.

Home Language Teaching (HLT) is language instruction that helps people learn, improve, and preserve their Home Language. This allows individuals to develop their language skills in a language tied to their family or cultural background, even if it isn’t widely spoken where they live.

• See Handbook, chapters X and XXX for the research references.

HLE is crucial for multilingual pupils because it:

• helps Language Proficiency in the HL and in the language(s) of schooling,

• supports Multicultural Identity, connecting pupils to their own heritage and to the wider school community, with an improvement of well-being and sense of belonging,

• helps Academic Achievement, making pupils perform better academically,

• increases Economic Opportunities, since multilingual pupils with strong HL skills are prepared to succeed in future labor activities,

• promotes Social Mobility, helping pupils from marginalized communities to offer equal access to education and other societal opportunities.