A Meta-Analysis of the Relationships Between Types of Early Childhood Teacher Language Practices

• In Event: Enhancing Language Learning in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Supportive teacher language practices in early childhood classrooms have been shown to foster young children's oral language development. While a large body of research in this area has accumulated over time, its growth has been hampered by the time-consuming process of gathering, transcribing, and coding data on a number of dimensions using fine-grained measures. The purpose of the current paper is two-fold: (a) to synthesize the body of research on the teacher language practices that support preschool and kindergarten children's oral language development to better understand which practices are highly related to one another and which are distinct, and (b) to articulate high-impact means for coding and analyzing data in future research. Articles for this meta-analysis were identified by database searches and hand searches of reference lists and reviews. These initial searches yielded 3,582 articles. Titles and abstracts were screened for inclusion/exclusion criteria: studies must be in a preschool/kindergarten setting with typically developing children, include at least one observation in which teachers' language was systematically coded for practices that support oral language, and include at least one correlation between teacher language variables. Both authors then screened the full text of articles for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twenty-five articles remained after the screening process; each was coded by both authors for participant information, information about the teacher language variables, and correlations between teacher language variables. Teacher language variables included type/token counts, use of sophisticated vocabulary, measures of complex syntax, utterance type (e.g., questions, comments), use of literal/inferential language, and vocabulary instruction. Using meta-analysis and factor analysis, results will report relationships between different types of teacher language practices and how these practices vary across settings. Results identified several characteristic patterns in teachers' language use, such as increased use of responsive talk aligning with an increased use of questions and of knowledge-building talk. These results will synthesize current research to streamline data collection and coding for future research and inform efforts to develop tools to measure classroom language quality.

Authors

• Elizabeth Burke Hadley, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Erica M. Barnes, University at Albany - SUNY