LANGUAGE/SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Language/Speech Development in Early Childhood



Language/Speech Development in Early Childhood

Thesis Statement

Early childhood language learning is a complex process. Therefore, early childhood teachers must balance diverse needs in their classrooms, and often must modify instruction for students who are learning English as a new language.

Introduction

More and more mainstream teachers are seeing ELLs at earlier stages in their English language development; thus, teachers are taking on more responsibility for teaching ELLs the academic English they need to be successful.

In the United States, early childhood teachers must balance diverse needs in their classrooms, and often must modify instruction for students who are learning English as a new language. Fortunately, many teacher preparation programs have incorporated strategies from English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) instruction into their curricula. This article synthesizes a few of what the authors, as teacher educators, believe are the key principles that early childhood teachers should utilize in order to support English language learners' (ELLs) English language development in early childhood classrooms.

More and more mainstream teachers are seeing ELLs at earlier stages in their English language development; thus, teachers are taking on more responsibility for teaching ELLs the academic English they need to be successful. For example, in 1998, California voters approved a measure that effectively ended bilingual education in public schools, replacing it with a system of one year of English-immersion instruction. The state of Florida mandates that every teacher be trained in English as a Second Language (ESL) strategies.

Discussion

Early childhood programs have changed in recent years. The revised edition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997) expanded the definition of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) to include:

1) what is known about the strengths, interests, and needs of each individual child;

2) what is known about children's development and learning; and

3) knowledge of the social and cultural contexts in which children live. It is this third aspect that was added in the revised edition. The focus on children's cultural contexts is critical for ELLs and for their acceptance in early childhood classrooms:

Increasingly, programs serve children and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, requiring that all programs demonstrate understanding of and responsiveness to cultural and linguistic diversity. Because culture and language are critical components of children's development, practices cannot be developmentally appropriate unless they are responsive to cultural and linguistic diversity (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997, p. 4)

If teachers truly follow DAP guidelines, then instructional content and methods will vary depending on what the teacher knows about each child, including a child's developmental level as well as the social and cultural context of the family. Consequently, fair treatment means that classroom instruction and methods should reflect the children's differences.

In the landmark Lau v. Nichols case (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court established that providing an "equal" education for ELLs did not always mean that students were given a fair opportunity to learn. In fact, the courts found that Chinese students involved in the suit were being excluded from educational ...