Measurement and Implications of Student-Teacher Language Match for Multilingual Children

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Language Teaching and Learning for Indigenous, Immigrant, and Second-Generation Students (Table 9)

Abstract

As young multilingual students start school, teachers become an important resource for them to develop cognitive, academic, and social skills. Student-teacher match in sociodemographic characteristics has positive effects on teachers' beliefs, expectations and student-teacher closeness among culturally and linguistically diverse students (Yiu, 2013; Gershenson et al., 2016). However, the role of teachers' matching linguistic background and classroom language practices has not been fully investigated. There has been no systematic study of how these teacher-level factors, in the context of the linguistic composition of the classroom, tie in to constructing an inclusive, multilingual linguistic environment. Using a large and nationally representative sample of children (ECLS-K, 2011), this quantitative, correlational study examines teacher-level factors and classroom linguistic composition that may influence the cognitive and socioemotional outcomes of multilingual students from kindergarten to the Spring of first grade. By incorporating linguistic characteristics and practices into the investigation of student-teacher match, the study aims to contribute to how "match" is operationally defined in the context of education of multilingual learners.

Author

• Juno Dong, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author