Dual Language Learners Coffee Chat Slides.pdf

Dual Language Learners in Early Childhood Classrooms

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Teaching Dual Language Learners

What Early Childhood Educators Need to Know

Get the essential knowledge and strategies to support young dual language learners in your classroom—and set them up for a lifetime of school success!

**https://bpub.fyi/Teaching-DLLs**

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Dual Language Learners

• Across the nation, educational systems are experiencing an increase in the number of young children who speak a language other than English at home and are learning a second language
• Since 2000, DLL population in the U.S. has grown by 24% (Park et al., 2017)
• More than 350 languages represented including:

Spanish (59%)
Chinese (3.3%)
Tagalog (1.9%)
Vietnamese (1.9%)
Arabic (1.9%)
• Dual Language Learners (DLLs) make up a significant number of children in early childhood settings

Goals for Today’s Coffee Chat

• Explore ways to provide effective support for dual language learners in the classroom
• Learn practical instructional strategies for promoting language and literacy development in dual language learners

Positive Beliefs Promote Responsive Practices

Teachers should continuously reflect on and examine their own beliefs.

BELIEFS THAT PROMOTE CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICES WITH DUAL LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Ask Yourself: Do your beliefs align with your classroom practices?

BELIEF 1: Children are capable of successfully learning multiple languages
BELIEF 2: Quality and quantity of language input are important for language learning
BELIEF 3: Knowledge of a first language can support learning a second language
BELIEF 4: Bilingualism and multilingualism have many linguistic, cognitive, and cultural benefits

Children can navigate different languages and cultures.

Benefits of Bilingualism/Multilingualism

Linguistic: Learning one language helps in the development of a second or third language. Many skills transfer across languages.
Cognitive: Knowing more than one language can help with planning and regulating behavior, thinking flexibly, and inhibitory control.
Cultural: Children continue to communicate with family members, develop cultural competence, and strengthen their identity.

Focus on Language and Literacy

The Reading Rope

Strategies for Developing Language and Literacy Skills with DLLs

Focus on language development and extended vocabulary
Foster phonological awareness
Integrate instruction on letter identification, decoding, word recognition skills
Support learning about book concepts and print knowledge
Engage students in early writing
Support home languages

Language Development and Vocabulary

High Quality Interactions Support of home languages

Engage children in hearing and using different words
Back-and-forth conversations
Opportunities to develop new words in context
Scaffolding--confirm, recast, elaborate
Reading books, listening to stories, singing

Lesson Example: Focus on Vocabulary

A read-aloud lesson including activities before, during, and after the reading
Book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (Cronin, 2000)
Identify and pre-teach key vocabulary words
Connect to DLLs’ background and knowledge
While reading, explain the definitions
Present activities after the read-aloud

Assessment of Language and Literacy Skills

Systematic

Assess skills in the languages that the child is exposed to and uses to demonstrate what he or she knows and is able to do

Developmentally Appropriate

Multiple sources of data
Assess learning that is connected to the curriculum and teaching in the classroom so that DLL children have an opportunity to learn these skills
Engage families in assessing language and early literacy skills, especially for determining children’s abilities in the home languages