Linguistic support in preschools for children is a crucial matter for Dual Language Learners (DLLs). In addition to the acquisition of the second language, a special challenge exists for DLLs in extending linguistic proficiency in the first language. Research on bilingualism shows that neglect of a language necessarily leads to the loss of the language (de Houwer, 2009). On the contrary, support for the first language should carry long term advantages for children, for example on metalinguistic competence or consciousness about linguistic structures. Two factors are especially significant: achievement of adequate linguistic performance and sufficient experiences in both languages (Barac et al. 2014). Competent bilingualism depends mainly on the linguistic input that is given in particular by the family and in the ideal case in preschools (Collins, 2014). But concepts of bilingual education are not assignable for all languages in preschools. Nevertheless, an open position and a welcome culture on the primary languages of the children are possible. Accordingly, the educational preschool-plans in Germany explicitly describe support of bilingualism and multilingualism as an educational aim in preschools (Viernickel & Schwarz 2009). The paper is about the project “The effects of actively integrating multilingualism into preschools” in Germany. Using a 3-year longitudinal intervention study, the project aims at implementing current recommendations for the integration of multilingualism in preschools using individual training measures, and at documenting changes concerning the preschool, the parents, and the children.The study’s participants include a total of 19 preschools with a high percentage of DLLs which were randomly assigned to either experimental or control group. During the intervention, the experimental group receives training on the integration of multilingualism in childcare establishments. The paper presents concepts of integrating multilingualism into preschools as well as results of the first measurement on institutional level. Educational beliefs about multilingualism (Reich 2007), Linguistic teacher-child interactions, measured by the Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn) (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2011), ratings about the integration of multilingualism in the environment of the preschool as well as a global rating using Supports for Early Literacy Assessment (SELA) (Smith et al., 2001) are reported. Preliminary results show that although the educational beliefs of the preschool staff to this topic are very different a just a very low level of integration of multilingualism in preschools is realized. Although there are meanwhile concepts for the integration of multilingualism, the conversion hardly seems to have occurred in practice up to now.

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