Poster #35 - Teachers’ Use of Spanish in the Classroom: Implications for Hispanic English Language Learners’ Classroom Engagement

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Introduction
As the population of Hispanic children grows within U.S. preschools, it is increasingly important to understand how these classrooms facilitate school readiness, such as positive engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks, for Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs). A growing literature base indicates that ELL students’ exposure to their native language in the classroom provides deeper access to academic content, and can foster development of essential cognitive, social-emotional, and language skills (Cárdenas-Hagan et al., 2007; Cook, 2001; Cummins, 2007). Yet, very few studies have included teachers’ Spanish language use as a predictor of classroom engagement for young, Spanish-speaking ELLs. Therefore, this study used observations to examine how teachers’ Spanish language use was related to Hispanic ELLs’ classroom engagement across the preschool year. We hypothesized that Hispanic ELLs would have higher positive engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks, and less negative engagement throughout the preschool year, when they are in classrooms where teachers speak more Spanish.

Study Population
Data came from a randomized control evaluation of two forms of in-service professional development for teachers (e.g., coursework and consultation), though the intervention is not a focus of this current work. Data were collected in fall and spring of the academic year and included 84 Hispanic children and 37 preschool teachers. Students were 49% female with a mean age of four. Teachers were 95% female, and 62% reported that English was the only language spoken in the classroom by teachers.

Methods
Children’s observed engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks, as well as their negative engagement, was measured using the Individual Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS; Downer et al., 2011). Each child was observed by an independent observer for a minimum of four 10-minute cycles across multiple days in both the fall and spring. Data on teachers’ classroom language use was collected across every inCLASS observation cycle conducted in each classroom. A unique classroom construct was created to represent the percentage of teachers’ Spanish language used across all children’s observation cycles within each classroom across the entire academic year. Observers coded the proportion of cycles that Spanish was spoken by any adult in the classroom.

Results
Descriptive results indicated that across all classrooms, teachers spoke Spanish with ELL students an average of 36% of the time they were observed (see Table 1). To account for nesting of children within classrooms, multiple regressions with clustered standard errors were then conducted to explore the relationship between teachers’ Spanish language use and Hispanic ELLs’ classroom engagement (see Table 2). There was no significant association between teachers’ Spanish use and children’s engagement with teachers or tasks. However, teachers’ Spanish language use in the classroom was predictive of greater peer engagement (B=0.01, p<0.05) by the spring, as expected. Surprisingly, teachers’ Spanish use was also related to increases in negative engagement over the year (B=0.00, p<0.01), which was opposite of what was hypothesized.

Findings will be discussed in the context of identifying a set of best practices for facilitating children’s engagement in inclusive early learning environments for language-minority students.

Authors

• Carina Alvarez, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Jason Downer, University of Virginia - Charlottesville