Teacher Language Quality in Preschool Classrooms with Dual Language Learners

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Oral language is a critical area of early development that lays the foundation for later academic achievement (Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). Preschool teachers can foster children’s oral language through the provision of developmentally appropriate and high quality language instruction (Cabell et al., 2011).

Though dual language learners (DLLs) are a rapidly growing population in preschool programs in the United States, research on teacher language practices has focused on monolingual English-speaking children (Justice et al., 2008). This work suggests that teachers’ use of responsive and decontextualized language supports preschoolers’ oral language development (Wasik et al., 2006). However, observational studies of classrooms with high DLL enrollment indicate that teachers do not use these practices at an optimal level (ACF, 2013).

An important next step is to examine how the spectrum of teacher talk in early childhood classrooms contributes to DLL language development in order to identify the most effective instructional approaches to promote language and literacy in DLLs. The present study aims to do
so by examining the relationship between five types of teacher talk (i.e., responsiveness, decontextualized language, contextualized language, giving directions, and singing or other types of language) and children’s oral language abilities.

Methods

We examined 64 teachers in low-income, majority DLL preschool classrooms and 401 children. All children were from homes where Spanish was spoken. Most children (60%) spoke a mixture of Spanish and English, though some were Spanish dominant (16%) or English dominant (16%). All children were typically developing.

Classrooms were observed using the Language Interaction Snapshot (LISn), a measure of language interaction that captures the type and frequency of teacher talk with children (Atkins-Burnett et al., 2010). Children were assessed using two subtests from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-2 (CELF:P-2). The Expressive Vocabulary subtest (EV) assesses a child’s ability to label pictures; the Sentence Structure subtest (SS) assesses a child’s ability to understand sentences. Language samples in English were elicited from the children using a wordless picture book.. The mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and number of different words (NDW) in their narrative responses measured syntactic abilities and productive lexical diversity, respectively.

Results and Discussion

Descriptive findings from the LISn indicate that high quality teacher talk occurred infrequently in classrooms. Giving directions occurred the most and responsiveness and decontextualized language occurred the least.

Results also suggest that various types of teacher talk are related to DLLs’ comprehension of oral language and expressive vocabulary, as measured by the CELF:P-2. All types of teacher talk independently predicted children’s expressive vocabulary. When we analyzed types of teacher talk simultaneously, only responsiveness was significantly predictive of children’s EV scores (β = .37, p < .05), revealing that teachers’ use of responsive language demonstrated the strongest relationship to DLL language outcomes. Results indicated that none of the LISn composites predicted children’s narrative outcomes (i.e., MLUw, NDW).

Findings from the present study lend support for the importance of teacher talk, especially responsive talk that promotes reciprocity in language interactions, for building the English language skills of DLL children.

Authors

• Codie Kane, Temple University
  Presenting Author

• Lia Elaine Sandilos
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carol Scheffner Hammer, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eugene Komaroff, Keiser University Graduate School
  Non-Presenting Author