Supporting young Spanish speaking English learners through teacher scaffolding and reciprocal peer tutoring

ABSTRACT

Young English learners (ELs) whose home language is Spanish continue to lag behind in several school readiness areas including language and literacy skills in spite of their strong social skills, which are positively related to language and literacy. The purpose of this article is to identify challenges that preschool Spanish speaking ELs face, explore theoretical underpinnings of context-based instructional models, and discuss implications for research, practice, and policy making. Based on sociocultural theory and social transactional theory, we propose a conceptual framework that consists of embedding a teacher-scaffolded instruction within reciprocal peer mediated interactions to promote preschool Spanish speaking ELs’ English language and literacy skills for kindergarten readiness. Given the transactional nature of peer tutoring, we hypothesize that children receiving the scaffolded reciprocal peer tutoring will have increased social interaction. Additionally, we expect a mediating effect of children's social interaction on their language and literacy development.

KEYWORDS:

• Scaffolding
• peer tutoring
• English learners

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yaoying Xu

Dr. Yaoying Xu is a Professor in the Department of Counseling and Special Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Xu’s research interests and expertise focus on social aspects of students with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and how social interaction affects students’ academic performance.

Chin-Chih Chen

Dr. Chin-Chih Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Special Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research goals are to understand the risk and protective factors related to school adjustment, to investigate the associated developmental and ecological precursors and consequences, and to use her research to inform evidence-based intervention addressing academic, social and behavioral needs for children and youth with disabilities.

Christine Spence

Dr. Christine Spence is Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling and Special Education at. Her research focuses on high quality experiences for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families participating in early childhood services and systems through qualitative and mixed methods approaches. Her recent work examines access to supports for families of young children with disabilities with limited resources, cultural barriers, or with needs across multiple systems.

Melissa Washington-Nortey

Dr. Melissa Washington-Nortey is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Counseling and Special Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research examines parenting and contextual factors that influence the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children with developmental disabilities in varied cultural contexts.

Fa Zhang

Dr. Fa Zhang recently received her Ph.D. in educational psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on STEM motivation and learning outcomes for secondary students. She primarily studies student affective and cognitive factors using large-scale databases. She also focuses on student science learning opportunities and teaching practices that support student science motivation and learning outcomes.

Amber Brown

Amber Brown is a doctoral student in the Special Education and Disability Policy Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her line of research centers on the self-determination and mental health of Black and Latinx students with disabilities. She examines how the collaboration of vocational rehabilitation counselors and special education teachers can improve mental health and self determination. Her research aims to improve transition outcomes for Black and Latinx students and overall service delivery partnerships.