Early Teacher-Child Relationships and Behavioral Adjustment of Multilingual Children

• In Event: 2-077 - Teacher-Child Relationships in the Early Years of Schooling

Integrative Statement

Early teacher-child relationships have an enduring impact on children’s school adjustment. The preponderance of the literature on teacher-child relationships has focused on native English speakers with little research conducted on children who are learning more than one language. The limited research on the teacher-child relationships of children who are learning multiple languages has produced conflicting results and indicates a need for further investigation (Fumoto et al., 2007; LeClair et al., 2009; Lutchel et al., 2010). As the number of children who are learning multiple languages in the United States continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to understand their school experiences and classroom adjustment. Multilingual children face the difficult task of learning the culture of the school and classroom while also interacting within the classroom using a language with which they have less expertise or are still learning (Fumoto et al., 2007). In addition to the stress felt by children, teachers may feel stressed or anxious about addressing the communication obstacles that come when working with children learning multiple languages (Fumoto et al., 2007; Gillanders, 2007).
In the present study, we examined the teacher-child relationships of children who speak multiple languages and children who only speak English in preschool through grade 3 (N = 840) in one Ohio school district. The sample included 82 classroom teachers with no teachers reporting fluency in a language other than English. We applied multilevel modeling to account for the nesting of children within classrooms. Based on teacher perceptions of relationships, we found that children who are multilingual experienced less close relationships with their teachers across the academic year (See Table 1). Conflict levels did not differ as a function of children’s language status.
We explored the interaction between teacher-child relationship quality and children’s language backgrounds on children’s behavior, to understand whether teacher-child relationships differentially influence the classroom behavior of children who speak multiple languages and children who are monolingual English speakers (See Table 2). For behavior control, teacher-child relationship quality was more consequential for children who speak only English. It is possible that given the connection between teacher modeling and behavior control, relationship-quality is more influential for English only students because they see their teacher as more similar to them. English only learners may perceive more cultural similarities between themselves and their teachers than multilingual students do, and those similarities could cause them to be influenced to a greater degree by teacher expectations. This finding mirrors work on teacher-child relationships for students of different races where some research suggests teacher-child racial-ethnic match is related to differences in teacher perceptions of children’s behaviors (Downer, Goble, Myers, Pianta, 2016). When teachers and students are alike, teachers are more likely to value the child’s cultural assets, communicate in similar styles, and support children’s behavior in ways that appropriate to their culture and home experience. Findings underscore the importance of providing professional development opportunities to teachers to lessen teachers’ anxiety about working with children learning multiple languages and support the development of close teacher-child relationships for multilingual students.

Authors

• Anna Rhoad-Drogalis, The Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Robin C. Sayers, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Justice, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tzu-Jung Lin, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Logan, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly M Purtell, The Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author