Language Facilitation Strategies Used in Early Childhood Education Programs With Bilingual Children

• In Event: Language and Literacy Outcomes of Neurotypical and Neurodiverse Children Growing up in Bilingual Environments

Abstract

It is well established that academic achievement necessitates the early development of a strong oral language and literacy foundation. While evidence-based educational recommendations have been made to support educators across the United States, several external factors still exist that contribute to differences in the development of these early skills. To illustrate, research has noted disparities between the English oral language skills of economically disadvantaged dual language learners (DLLs) – children who are learning English at the same time that they are developing their first language, prior to entering kindergarten – and their English-speaking, monolingual peers before they even begin kindergarten.

Fortunately, extant research indicates that early childhood education (ECE) programs may be a powerful intervention to reduce the chances of later academic difficulties. Participation in such programs has also proven to be advantageous specifically for DLLs. More specific to DLL children, supporting children’s heritage language through ECE programs to promote bilingual language development, which in turn facilitates English language acquisition. Additionally, research highlights the importance of adult interactions guided by extended discourse strategies, in the child’s home language or in English, have been reported to be related to DLLs’ oral language skills.

To better understand the language environments of ECE classrooms with varying proportions of DLLs, we examined the frequency in which adults use various language facilitation strategies. We further investigated the potential classroom characteristics that may predict teacher strategy use and the impact that strategy use may have on DLL children’s lexical and morphosyntactic skills. The study included 21 preschool classrooms and 69 children from a Latine background that spoke Spanish at home. Classroom observations were recorded at three different timepoints (Fall, Winter, Spring) in one school year. Interval coding was implemented as each observation was randomly divided into three 10-minute segments and coded for frequency of strategy use. A total of 14 strategies were of interest: English-General (n = 5), Spanish-General (n = 5), and DLL-Specific (n = 4) language facilitation strategies.

A between-subjects ANOVA indicated that the frequency in which teachers use the strategies did not differ by strategy type; however significant interactions between teacher language status (i.e., English-speaking monolingual and Spanish-English speaking bilingual) and strategy use were found. Due to the nested structure of the data, hierarchical linear models (HLM) were examined to analyze how classroom level predictors are linked to teacher strategy use. Results indicated that the proportion of DLLs has positive associations with teachers’ use of Spanish general language facilitation strategies and DLL specific language learning strategies. Finally, two-level HLMs examining the association between strategy use and DLL language outcomes revealed a significant negative association between the use of Spanish general language facilitation strategies and English lexical outcomes. Further, the analyses revealed significant positive associations between English general language facilitation strategy use and DLL morphosyntactic outcomes.

This study informs our understanding of adult-child interactions in ECE programs, classroom language environments for Spanish-speaking DLLs, the frequency of different language facilitation strategies, and the impact that implementation of such strategies may have on DLL children’s language growth.

Author

• Keisey Fumero, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  Presenting Author