Learning Opportunities of Monolingual and Multilingual kindergarteners and their Early Literacy and Executive Functioning Development

Abstract

Nowadays, classrooms include children coming from a wide range of cultures and speaking different languages. Teachers are therefore challenged to create appropriate learning opportunities for very diverse children. The current study examined the unique contribution of general classroom interaction, individual teacher-child interactions and behavioral engagement, on early literacy and executive functioning development of monolingual and multilingual kindergartners. Nineteen classrooms were followed for one school year. On three occasions teacher and children were observed for teacher-child interactions and the children were assessed on engagement, early literacy and executive functioning. Research findings: The results show that learning outcomes of both multilingual and monolingual children were positively associated with high engagement in large groups and frequent interactions with the teacher. Furthermore, monolingual children's favorable academic outcomes were predicted by complex interactions; multilingual children's favorable outcomes were predicted by low classroom organization. Practice or policy: The present study emphasizes the importance of recognizing the differences between monolingual and multilingual children in their needs in the classroom, as well as recognizing that these groups might be unjustifiably exposed to different educational experiences, in order to optimize the learning opportunities for all children, regardless of their language background.

Recruitment and Salary Disparity between Monolingual and Bilingual EFL Teachers in Oman

“…ere is a necessity to review the current recruitment policies that place bilingual and multilingual teachers on one-year contract which makes them feel insecure as the above findings reveal. It is also of paramount importance to adopt policies that instill greater sense of job security since it plays a great role in teacher's motivation and innovation [75].…”

Stakeholder Views on Early Literacy and Reading and Writing Acquisition in the Preschool Period

“…The conclusion that early literacy education will be effective in ensuring academic achievement in future learning and ensuring competence in different disciplines overlaps with various research results in the literature (Langeloo et al, 2019;Nation et al, 2010;Piasta et al, 2020). On the other hand, the conclusion that stakeholders receiving early literacy education can have a negative impact on academic achievement, causing children to be bored of the classroom learning process and leading to low motivation is contradicted by the result of previous research.…”

“…), and students should be offered real-life opportunities (Zygouris-Coe & Center, 2001, p. 4). In this regard, it is crucial to systematically improve early literacy skills (Langeloo et al 2019) and developing children's early literacy skills should be one of the principal goals of early childhood education (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998, p. 188). Besides, considering that not all children can start early childhood education having the same language skills level, the preschool teacher needs to determine each child's improvement levels and build the educational processes upon this foundation.…”

Measuring children’s engagement in early childhood education and care settings: a scoping literature review

“…Child engagement can be a predictor, mediator, and an outcome in educational and early childhood research. It has been related to indicators of educational quality such as peer interactions (Diebold & Perren, 2022) and teacher-child relationships (Pietarinen et al, 2014;Roorda et al, 2017), and it predicts other positive outcomes such as learning achievements (Aydogan, 2012;Ladd and Dinella, 2009;Langeloo et al, 2020;Lei et al, 2018), and well-being (Pietarinen et al, 2014;Roorda et al, 2017).…”