Prekindergarten Teacher Perceptions of Language-Minority Dual Language Learners’ Developmental Abilities

ABSTRACT

Dual language learners (DLLs) are a growing student population in the United States, especially in early childhood. However, DLL growth is uneven across the United States, and in many classrooms, DLLs will constitute a language minority—that is, they will be the sole or one of few students who speak a non-English home language. Given the importance of teacher perceptions for children’s development, data are needed to understand how early childhood teachers view their language-minority DLL students. We use prekindergarten data collected in the American South and two-level hierarchical linear modeling to examine teacher perceptions of language-minority DLL students’ end-of-year academic and social-emotional abilities. Findings indicate that teacher perceptions of language-minority DLL status were positively related to social-emotional abilities, but non-significantly related to academic abilities. Implications include collecting localized data in order to understand how early childhood teachers perceive their language-minority DLL students and using these data to enhance teacher training.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic abilities
• early childhood
• dual language learners
• language
• literacy
• math
• prekindergarten
• social-emotional abilities
• teacher perceptions

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Malone Family Foundation, Project LAUNCH and funds provided by Dr. Milla Boschung, Dean of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Special thanks are extended to Dean Boschung, Dr. Carroll Tingle and particularly Dr. Reuben Cook for their passion and support for this project. Also, thanks are extended to the Superintendent of the city schools, and his staff for their assistance, and especially to the teachers and children. We are grateful to Gail Piggott from the Alabama Partnership for Children and her colleagues on the Blueprint for School Readiness Transition Teams for providing permission to use and modify their Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Scale. Finally, our thanks to Hunter Sartain McNutt and Amy Crosby for their support with data collection.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Malone Family Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Holland Banse

Dr. Holland Banse is an assistant professor in Early Childhood Education in the Human Development and Family Studies Department of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Her research foci include supporting young dual language learners’ content learning, early childhood mathematics education, and the intersection of those two areas. She is also a former preschool and prekindergarten teacher.

Maria Hernandez-Reif

Dr. Maria Hernandez-Reif is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at The University of Alabama. She teaches infant and toddler development and conducts research on mother-child outcomes. She has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers and chapters and is on the editorial board of Infant Development and Behavior.

April Kendrick

Dr. April Kendrick is an assistant professor in the college of Human Environmental Sciences, and Director of Child Development Resources at The University of Alabama. April has a BS in Early Child Development, a Master’s in Human Development and Family Studies and a PhD in Developmental Psychology, all from The University of Alabama. Some of her research interests are related to children’s play behaviors, infant and early childhood mental health and kindergarten readiness.