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Language Teaching for Young Learners: Online-First Articles“I want children to see that their languages are respected”
Perspectives on world language learning from pre-primary teachers in the United States
Demand for an understanding and appreciation of linguistic and cultural diversity in educational contexts has
intensified, given increasing levels of globalization. Moreover, guidelines from educational agencies (e.g., United Nations, 2015b; U.S. Department of Education, 2017) as
well as state-level preschool teaching standards call for raising awareness of languages, cultures, and diversity beginning in
early childhood. However, limited research in that area suggests most U.S. pre-primary teachers are monolingual English speakers
(Espinosa & Crandell, 2021). Additionally, professional development and
instructional programs on language and cultural awareness in pre-primary classrooms are rare (Kearney & Barbour, 2015). These observations raise the question as to how pre-primary educators promote linguistic
and cultural diversity in their classrooms.
This study explores world language learning practices in state-licensed, Northeastern U.S. pre-primary schools. We
administered an online survey about world language learning resources, pedagogical approaches, and classroom practices to 138
pre-primary educators and conducted individual, semi-structured interviews with 15 of the teachers. We calculated frequency
distributions for survey items to determine consensus or discrepancy among teachers and applied the procedure of initial, axial,
and selective coding (Friedman, 2012) to open-ended survey responses and interview
transcripts to identify trends and refine themes. Findings show that teachers recognized the benefits of building language and
cultural awareness. Despite limited time, training, and resources to implement such pedagogy, they included different
languages and cultures in instruction. We present their practices, focusing in particular on three distinct approaches, and
discuss implications for promoting pre-primary plurilingual and (inter)cultural education.
Keywords: world language learning, preschool teachers, linguistic and cultural diversity, pre-primary education
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1Additional/world language programs in ECEC and the voices of teachers
- 2.2Research questions
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Data collection
- Online survey
- Semi-structured interviews
- 3.2Participants
- 3.3Analyses
- 3.1Data collection
- 4.Findings
- 4.1Survey responses
- 4.2Semi-structured interviews
- Approaches to including world languages
- Perceived challenges to including world languages
- 5.Discussion
- Do teachers include WLL in their pre-primary teaching? If so, how?
- What are perceived challenges teachers face in implementing WLL in their pre-primary classrooms?
- 6.Concluding remarks
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 19 July 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltyl.00049.tim
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltyl.00049.tim
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