Home Language Environment and Executive Functions in Mexican American and Chinese American Preschoolers in Head Start

Parental perceptions of bilingualism and home language vocabulary: Young bilingual children from low-income immigrant Mexican American and Chinese American families

Dual language learners (DLLs), especially those from immigrant families in the United States, risk losing their home language as they gradually shift to speaking English as they grow up. Given the potential benefits of bilingualism on children's cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional development, it is crucial to maintain children's home language to foster bilingual development. The current literature suggests that parental beliefs toward bilingualism and the language and literacy environment are linked to children's language development. With the growing number of DLLs living in the United States, little is known about what parental beliefs about bilingualism of their children are integrated into these bilingual households and parents' role in home language maintenance. The present study addresses the gap in the literature by investigating low-income immigrant families, specifically Chinese American and Mexican American families, and exploring the parental perceptions of children's bilingual language learning. Further, the present study examines the relations among parental perceptions of bilingualism, home language and literacy practices, and home language oral proficiency. Data were collected from a total of 41 Mexican American and 91 Chinese American low-income immigrant families with DLLs ages 50-88 months who had been recruited from Head Start programs and state-funded preschools in Northern California when the children were 3-4 years old. Information about shared reading frequency, home language exposure and usage, and parental perceptions of bilingualism was collected through parental interviews, and DLLs' home language oral proficiency was individually assessed. No significant difference in home language oral proficiency was observed between the two groups. Principal Components Analysis on the parental perceptions of bilingualism measure revealed two components, "Importance of Being Bilingual" and "English over Bilingualism." Stepwise regression analysis results show that "Importance of Being Bilingual" was associated with children's home language oral proficiency after controlling for culture, child age, the frequency of home language shared book reading, and child home language exposure and use. The results show that parents' positive beliefs toward bilingualism are related to the children's use of that language and their children's language outcomes. Implications and suggestions for home language and literacy support for DLLs are discussed.

Teachers' Language Use in Multilingual Head Start Classrooms: Implications for Dual Language Learners

Dual language learners (DLLs) are sensitive to teachers' language influence in early childhood classrooms. In this mixed methods study incorporating 53 teachers from 28 preschools in Northern California, we investigated the characteristics of teachers' language use in preschools teaching Chinese-English and Spanish-English DLLs. We further examined the links of teachers' language use to the DLLs' expressive vocabulary in English and their heritage language (HL), controlling for home language exposure and other confounding variables. Finally, we conducted interviews with teachers to understand how they make meaning of their daily language practices. The sample of children consisted of 190 Chinese-English (N = 125) and Spanish-English (N = 65) DLLs (mean age = 48.3 months; 48% females). The teacher survey showed that most teachers spoke two or more languages and used a mix of English and their HL during their interactions with DLLs. The results of random-intercept models showed that teachers' language use did not uniquely predict children's vocabulary, controlling for family-level factors. However, the teachers with more years of teaching DLLs oversaw children with a higher HL vocabulary. The interview data revealed that teachers employ several strategies to communicate with DLLs and support HL maintenance. Our study reveals the multilingual backgrounds of preschool teachers and the rich language strategies they implement in multilingual classrooms. Future directions concerning the quality and development of teachers' language use are discussed.

The Effect of Kindergarten Classroom Interaction Quality on Executive Function Development among 5- to 7-Year-Old Children

The present research addresses the impact of preschool classroom interaction quality on executive function development. CLASS methodology was used to assess the quality of teacher–child interaction in kindergarten groups; “Inhibition”, “Memory for Designs”, and “Sentences Repetition” subtests from the NEPSY-II (memory for designs, sentences repetition, inhibition) and Dimensional Change Card Sort were used for the evaluation of executive functions. Repeated measures were performed to assess the children’s progress, based on the quality of the educational environment in their group. The total sample consisted of 447 children (48.5% boys and 51.5% girls). ANOVA and linear regression analysis demonstrated that children’s progress in executive function development varies for low- and high-quality classrooms. Furthermore, different predictive potential of CLASS domains was shown for the development of executive function components in preschool children.