Individual Asian Children’s Language Use and Engagement in Head Start Classrooms

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

Introduction: Young dual language learners (DLLs) who learn a language other than English in their home have been the fastest-growing population, around one third of all children under age eight (Kim, Lambert, & Burts, 2018). Previous research has shown that DLL children differ in various developmental outcomes compared to English monolingual peers (Buysse, Feinberg, Páez, Hammer & Knowles, 2013). Although there has been a plethora of research conducted with DLLs in early childhood settings, they primarily focused Spanish-speaking DLLs, not other language groups such as Asians. In addition, relatively little research has been conducted on how DLL children, especially Asian children, had different classroom experiences compared to their English monolingual and Spanish-English DLL peers. Thus, this study examined the classroom experiences of Asian children (i.e., mostly with Myanmar heritage as a relatively new immigrant population in the U.S.) in a Head Start program with a focus on their language use and engagement in classroom activities.
Methods: The data were collected during 2018-2020; the participants included 2-, 3- and 4-year-old children (n=1,277) in a Head Start program in the Midwest in the U.S. Among them, children with home language of English and white or African American ethnicity were (n=697), home language Spanish with Hispanic ethnicity (n=495), and other languages with Asian ethnicity (n=85). The study used the Child Observational Protocol (COP; Farran et al., 2017), which involves 3-second sweeps that capture snapshots of individual children's behavior over four hours in the classroom. All children in the classroom were observed and had an average of eleven sweeps per child. The current study focused on the proportion of sweeps in which the child was talking or listening and to whom, and the type of activity they engaged. Group comparisons were made using ANOVA in SPSS.
Results: Results indicated that Asian children were less likely to speak in English than children whose home language is English (F(2,1274=26.811, p<0.000) while they were more likely to talk or listen to the teacher (F(2, 1274=7.871, p<0.000) than Spanish speaking peers. Compared to the children whose home language is English and Spanish, Asian children were observed more frequently in passive instruction in which children mainly listened (F(2, 1274)=8.845, p<0.000). Asian children were more frequently involved at the med-low level compared to both of other home language peers(F(2, 1274)=6.020,p<0.002), and less frequently in the high level of activities compared to their English home language peers (F(2, 1274=3.180, p<0.042).
Discussion: Our findings suggest that Asian children enrolled in a Head Start program were more likely to listen to a teacher and to be engaged more in passive teacher lead instruction without interaction. Asian DLLs had a different language experience and engagements than other home language groups. To provide inclusive quality education for all children, further research is needed to see more specific ethnic group differences and examine the variables that shape the different experiences. This information calls for further studies on how classroom characteristics, teacher and peer interactions will make differences based on the children’s home language and ethnicity.

Authors

• Boo Young Lim, The University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Shinyoung Jeon, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sherri L Castle, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kyong-Ah Kwon, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author