Reevaluating research paradigms for early-childhood teacher language practices in global contexts: evidence from a meta-analysis and a call to the field

• In Event: Monitoring, evaluation, research and learning in ECD

Proposal

Objectives: The early education classroom is a crucial setting for language development in children, significantly influenced by teachers’ language practices (Hadley et al., 2022). Many studies posit a positive correlation between teacher language practices and the language development of children (Dickinson & Tabors, 1991). However, some research has reported neutral or even negative effects on children’s language development as a result of complex teacher language practices (Barnes & Dickinson, 2017). Despite this, a meta-analysis that thoroughly investigates this relationship has yet to be conducted. This study aims to address this void by introducing a meta-analysis that explores the association between early childhood teachers’ language practices and children’s language development in global contexts.
In this meta-analysis, we first examined the overall relationship between teachers’ language practices and children’s language development from preschool to third grade. We then analyzed factors that potentially moderate the strength of this relationship, including dimensions of teacher and child language and participants’ demographic characteristics. Following the review of 14,641 relevant articles, a meta-analysis was conducted with 104 unique studies. Our findings prompt us to underscore that the extant research paradigms are deeply rooted in Western-centric ideologies. Consequently, we call for a reevaluation of research paradigms related to teachers’ language practices which need to consider diverse settings, cultures, education systems, and societal norms.

Theoretical Framework: A significant body of research has illustrated the considerable impact of early childhood teachers’ language practices on the development of children’s language skills. Studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between both the quantity of words used by teachers (Barnes et al., 2017), and the quality of teachers’ language, indicated by the use of questions or comments or sophisticated vocabularies or conceptual talks, and children’s language development. However, not all empirical evidence supports this positive association. For example, Barnes and Dickinson (2017) have found a negative correlation between teachers’ longer utterances and the vocabulary growth of children and proposed that excessive linguistic complexity, beyond the comprehension level of the children, could impede the acquisition of new vocabulary. Thus, while certain findings underscore the relevance of early childhood educators’ language practices, the overall picture remains inconsistent, warranting further exploration.

Study Design: We used a meta-analytical approach to examine the association between teacher language practices and child language development. Meta-analysis integrates the results of individual studies, providing an overall effect size for the relationship under investigation, thereby increasing statistical power and allowing assessment of variability across diverse contexts and populations. We used partial correlation to measure the associations between teachers’ language practices and children’s language development, as it accounts for potential confounding factors, preventing inflation due to collinearity.

Data Sources: The meta-analysis included typically developing children from preschool to third grade. The included study must have observed teachers’ language practices and measures of children’s language outcomes. Studies must have quantitatively evaluated the link between teacher language practices and child language development. Databases like ERIC, PsycInfo, LLBA, and Web-of-Science were used, resulting in 14,641 articles in July 2022. Post deduplication and abstract screening, 989 articles remained. After the full-text screening, 119 articles met the eligibility criteria. Included studies were coded based on publication information, participant characteristics, language measurement, and effect size. After discarding articles with inadequate statistics, the final analysis included 104 unique studies, yielding 415 effect sizes.

Data Analysis: Statistical analyses were conducted with the RStudio software. We calculated partial correlations following Aloe and Thompson (2013). We used the metafor package (Viechtbauer, 2010) to estimate pooled effect sizes and perform moderator analyses, with Fisher’s z transformation normalizing the distribution of partial correlations (Hedges & Olkin, 2014). We employed the inverse of variance method and multi-level random-effects models, considering between-study heterogeneity and clustering effect sizes understudies (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). The Hartung-Knapp adjustment (Knapp & Hartung, 2003) was utilized to calculate confidence intervals for pooled effect sizes. We reported heterogeneity of overall analyses using tau-squared and I-squared (Harrer et al., 2021). We also conducted moderator analyses through meta-regression to further investigate the potential factors that contribute to the heterogeneity of the relationship under scrutiny.

Results: The meta-analysis included study samples across 13,572 teachers and 112,533 children. The majority of the studies were conducted in the U.S. and in English contexts (Table 1). An examination of the overall effect sizes indicated a significant association between teachers’ overall language practices and children’s language development ((rp = .11, p < .001, 95% CI [.09, .13], τ2 = .02, I2 = 64.9)). However, no significant relationship was identified between teachers’ language quantity and children’s overall language development. Meta-regression analyses indicated that factors such as children’s age and gender, the method of language assessment, the context of language instruction, and when the outcome language is Chinese, were found to significantly increases the strength of the relationship under study (see Table 2). However, factors like teachers’ education level, years of teaching experience, or the percentage of children who were DLLs were not found to significantly moderate the relationship.

Study Significance: The findings align with previous research suggesting that teachers’ language practices play a significant role in children’s language development (Hoff, 2006). The findings also affirmed the significant relationship between the overall quality of teachers’ language and children’s language development over the quantity of teachers’ language. When examined in the global context, it is evident that the majority of evidence was derived from studies that involved English-speaking participants and there is a scarcity of studies on other languages. Furthermore, it’s essential to acknowledge the deeply entrenched Western perspectives that dominate this field of research, placing a high value on verbosity and extensive adult involvement. While adult-child language interactions are a universal phenomenon across cultures, different cultural groups may prioritize different aspects of these interactions (Sanders & Wishard Guerra, 2016). The ideal language practices of teachers in classroom settings may also vary according to cultural values. To expand our knowledge of the impact of teachers’ language use on child language development, it is recommended that future research endeavors to adopt novel study designs that reflect the cultural values and perspectives of specific cultural groups.

Authors

• Yan Jiang, University of California San Diego

• Lillie Ko-Wong, UC San Diego

• Brittany Kaplan