Supportive Language Strategies for Preschool Dual Language Learners

In an effort to better understand the language environments of early childhood education (ECE) classrooms with varying proportions of dual language learners (DLLs), we examined the frequency in which adults use various language facilitation strategies. We further investigated the potential classroom characteristics that may predict teacher strategy use and the impact that teacher strategy use may have on DLL children's lexical and morphosyntactic skills. The study included 21 preschool classrooms and 69 children from a Latine background that spoke Spanish at home. Classroom observations were recorded at three different time points (Fall, Winter, Spring) in one school year. Interval coding was implemented as each observation was randomly divided into three 10-minute segments and coded for frequency of strategy use. A total of 14 strategies were of interest: English-General (n = 5), Spanish-General (n = 5), and DLL-Specific (n = 4) language facilitation strategies. A between-subjects one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the frequency in which teachers are using the strategies did not differ by strategy type; however significant interactions between teacher language status (i.e., English-speaking monolingual and Spanish- English speaking bilingual) and strategy use were found. Due to the nested structure of the data, hierarchical linear models (HLM) were examined to analyze how classroom level predictors are linked to teacher strategy use. Results indicated that the proportion of DLLs has significant positive associations with teachers' use of Spanish general language facilitation strategies and DLL-specific language learning strategies. Finally, two-level HLMs examining the association between strategy use and DLL language outcomes revealed a significant negative association between the use of Spanish general language facilitation strategies and English lexical outcomes. Further, the analyses revealed significant positive associations between English general language facilitation strategy use and DLL morphosyntactic outcomes. This study informs our understanding of adult-child interactions in ECE programs, classroom language environments for Spanish-speaking DLLs, the frequency of different language facilitation strategies, and the impact that implementation of such strategies may have on DLL children's language growth. Limitations and implications are discussed.