An Introduction to Integrated Dual Language Learners (Birth to Five), in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association

Editor’s note: This text-based course is an edited transcript of the webinar, An Introduction to Integrated Dual Language Learners (Birth to Five), in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association, presented by Erika Flores, MEd.

Learning Outcomes

After this course, participants will be able to:

Dual Language Learner (DLL)

A dual language learner is a young child who is developing and learning in the social context of two or more languages. It's a child who might be hearing one or two languages at home and might be learning, hearing, and developing another language at school. It's a continuous process of learning two or more languages. In the past, you might have heard the term English Language Learner. That term is used more in the context of K-12 education where there's more of a focus of helping children learn and acquire the English language. The term Dual Language Learner is used much more in the early childhood sphere because of the emphasis on helping children to continue to develop their home language or home languages, while they're also developing and learning English. This is especially because much of the recent research shows many benefits that children can reap from knowing more than one language. You might also hear the acronym DLL, which refers to dual language learners.

Growing Up as a Dual Language Learner

I'm going to share with you a little bit about my own story. I grew up as a Dual Language Learner and attended a Head Start program where my mother volunteered. My family immigrated from Mexico to the United States and I was born and raised as a young girl in the US. Growing up as an infant and a toddler, I mainly heard Spanish at home because that's what my mom and my dad spoke. That was developing my ability to speak and communicate with my cousins, uncles, and family members. I was quite excited when I knew I was going to go and start preschool. When I started preschool, I was very eager to talk with my teachers and with the other young children. I was really surprised when many of them were not able to understand what I was saying to them. Also, I wasn't really able to understand what they were saying to me. It was a big shock.

Today we are going to talk about strategies and how to support children that come into our program with similar backgrounds who are developing multiple languages, as well as how you can help them to be very successful through your program.

Other Stories

In addition to my story, I will be referring to stories of other young children as we go through today's course.

Maria

Maria is an infant whose family is originally from Columbia. She mainly hears Spanish at home. She is entering an early care program where the teacher's classroom language model will be based on the home language. She will continue hearing Spanish in her care program. 

Jung

Jung's family is originally from Korea. At home, he hears Korean, but he also hears English because his older brothers speak English. He's already developing these two languages. In his early childhood setting, the teachers mainly speak to him in English, with some home language support.

Xochitl

Xochitl's family was originally from a community in Guatemala and their main language is a Mayan dialect. She also has heard some Spanish as she's learned and developed. She's in a preschool classroom, where the main language of instruction will be English and her teachers will be supporting her with some home language words in Spanish as well. 

Pause and Reflect

As we go through this course, apart from hearing these stories, I want you to keep in mind your own experiences and the experiences of the children in your program that you serve and support. In order to do that, I would like you to take a moment to pause the course and reflect on these questions.

• What have been your experiences with dual language learners?
  • Did you grow up being a dual language learner?
  • Are there dual language learners in your program?
• What challenges and successes have you encountered as a dual language learner yourself, or with DLL children in your program?

Thank you for taking the time to think that through. Keep the answers to these questions in mind as we go through the rest of the course to make applications to your program and to your own experiences as well.

Why provide more professional development to support DLLs in early childhood programs?

• Achievement gaps in the US
• DLLs are a growing population in the US
• Early childhood professionals have the need to have more evidence-based strategies

It is very important for us to learn more about how to support dual language learners in early childhood programs. One reason is there is some data that shows some achievement gaps in the US. We want to make sure we're helping dual language learners be successful in their academic success and also in their lives. Also, dual language learners are a growing population in the United States and this trend will continue. We will be receiving more and more children in our programs who are developing a language at home other than English and who will also be developing English through your program. In addition, we know that more and more early childhood programs need to have evidence-based strategies. I believe that by taking this course you'll be able to understand how to better support dual language learners now, and in the years to come in your work with young children.

Pause and Reflect

I want this to be a very practical course, so please take a few moments to pause and reflect on these questions.

• What challenges have you encountered in order to fully support dual language learners and their families?
• What skills or strategies would you need in order to overcome these challenges?

Take a few minutes and think about that. Sometimes it helps to even jot down a few ideas. 

Thank you for taking the time to reflect. It is my goal that this course will provide you with some answers and some practical strategies to help you overcome whatever needs you have to better support the success of dual language learners and to work with families of dual language learners.

Integrated Dual Language Learners© (I-DLL) - Introduction

Today you're going to be learning about dual language learners and I'm going to tell you about a framework that I've developed over the past years called Integrated Dual Language Learners. I also call it I-DLL. It's a system where we're able to support the whole child as a dual language learner. Sometimes when we think about dual language learners the focus is mainly on teaching children English and focusing on language development being the most important thing. Language development is very important. However, research has shown that in order for us to be able to fully support a young child who's developing as a dual language learner, we have to learn evidence-based strategies that support the whole child including all of the developmental domains of that child. Today you're going to get an overview and introduction of what strategies can help give that support for success for dual language learners.

Benefits of Bilingualism

Another thing that is crucial to know about dual language learners is to understand what the benefits are of being a dual language learner. Why are we supporting the idea that we should help children develop two or more languages? The reason why is that recent research has found that there are benefits in several domains of development of the child.

Cognitive Benefits of Balanced Bilingual Children

• Cognitive control
• Memory
• Problem-solving
• Focus
• Attention
• Transfer

These are some of the cognitive benefits of balanced bilingual children. Children who are developing in a balanced way with two or more languages tend to have more cognitive control. This means they are able to focus their attention more and control their thoughts and cognition quite a bit.

They also have better working memory. Imagine that you have to know many words, not only words in one language but words in two or three languages. Children are actually practicing to use their memory so we see more enhanced skills in that area.

Bilingual children also have better problem-solving skills. Balanced bilinguals have found that when they're given a problem to solve or a challenge, they have much more flexibility in their cognition to find different possible solutions to a problem or a situation where they have to find a way to resolve it.

They're able to shift focus and attention much easier. They're focused on one area of study or an idea or concept and they are able to then shift their focus and attention to another task that they're working on. They're also able to find the main ideas of something that they are hearing. As they are listening they are learning.

They're also able to transfer knowledge from one situation to another situation. For example, if they have an understanding of how to solve a problem in one circumstance, they're able to then do that in different circumstances. They can more easily transfer knowledge to different situations.

These are wonderful cognitive benefits of children who are able to develop as balanced bilinguals. They're developing in a balanced way as they learn two languages.

Social-Emotional Benefits of Balanced Bilingual Children

Research has also found that there are several social-emotional benefits of balanced bilingual children. One is self-regulation. Bilingual children are better able to regulate their emotions, their feelings, what they're going through, and learn how to calm themselves. The executive functioning of self-regulation is more possible.

Research has also found that there are fewer behavior problems. Bilingual children are better able to adapt to behavioral expectations.

Another social-emotional benefit is family connection. We know that being able to communicate is key to any relationship. When children are able to continue speaking the language that their family members speak, this strengthens and helps these children have better relationships with their families. Imagine a young child being able to still talk with his or her grandmother or uncle. If the child is cut off from the home language, it can really affect the child's ability to communicate. Being a balanced bilingual will help that family connection to continue.

Overall communication is another benefit. When you have more than one language you're able to communicate with more people that may speak the languages that you do as well. 

Pause and Reflect

Please take a few moments to pause and reflect on the children and families in your program. 

• What benefits do you see the children and the families reaping as a result of the child becoming a balanced bilingual?
• What would be the benefits to the children in your classroom if they're learning English and also developing their home language?
• What benefits would the families get from that? 

Thank you for taking the time to reflect. I'm sure you were able to think about many benefits that the children and families would have from helping them develop as balanced bilinguals. As we work with families, it's key to share this information about the benefits of their children developing as bilinguals.

Dual Language Learner Language Development

Let's talk about dual language learners' language development. What does that look like as they're developing from infancy to toddlerhood, and then as they go into preschool? I'm going to talk a little bit about that progression and how it is that they develop two or more languages.

Bilingual Language Development

• Simultaneous
• Sequential

There are two ways in which children can become bilinguals. One of the ways is called simultaneous bilingualism. A child who's a simultaneous bilingual is learning and developing two languages at the same time. For example, an infant that's born in a family where two languages are spoken would become bilingual simultaneously.  The mom might speak Mandarin and the dad might speak Spanish.  The child is hearing and developing both Mandarin and Spanish at the same time, becoming bilingual simultaneously with these two languages.

Another way in which children can become bilingual is called sequential. Sequential bilingualism is where you first develop a base structure of one language and at some point, you add on another language in sequence. Then maybe later in development, you add on another language. It goes in sequence, first language, second language, then third language.

Language Development in a Nutshell

Infants:

• Phoneme perception
• Crying
• Cooing
• Babbling
• First words

This is a summary of how language is being developed. We know after infants are born if they're typically developing they will hear phonemes, perceive sounds, and already know how to differentiate between phonemes and just noise. For example, when they hear a truck passing by and going "Vroom" or when they hear their caregiver say, "Hello, Maria, I'm so happy you're here" they're able to differentiate those sounds. The sound of the truck that just passed by and made noise and the sound of the human voice are different phonemes.

We know that they initially communicate through crying. That's the way in which they tell us that they need something or they're communicating to us in general. As they continue hearing language they start developing the ability to coo and babble. As they continue practicing babbling sounds, around 12 months we start hearing their first words.

For an infant that is a simultaneous bilingual, such as the child I described earlier who hears Spanish and Mandarin at home, their babbling sounds will be similar, connected to what they hear. Some of their first words will be in Spanish and some will be in Mandarin. It will be based on the words and the phonemes that they've been hearing.

Toddlers:

• Vocabulary spurt
• Telegraphic speech
• Modification of speech
• Early grammatical awareness

As children become toddlers, suddenly there is a big vocabulary spurt. They start learning many words. It's better for them to hear more words and higher quality language because those are the words they will start using.  For example, using more nouns and verbs and descriptive words will help them have a bigger vocabulary.

People used to send telegraphs, which were tiny messages that you would have to send in a really brief way. In the beginning, toddlers start speaking with two-word sentences that we call telegraphic speech because they are short messages like a telegraph. For example, you might hear, "Me water," or "Pelota red," or "Quiero milk." They'll start communicating ideas with us by putting these words together that they've been hearing as they've been learning and developing. 

At this point, they might not be able to differentiate which language is which, they'll just use the words that they know to communicate an idea with the listener. As they continue to practice, they start using three-words sentences and modifying their speech depending on who they're talking to. For example, they might speak a different way with other young children than what they speak with Grandpa and another way when they speak with their teacher. They start realizing that there are some rules with language and that there are different ways that you can communicate with different people.

They also start developing early grammatical awareness. They begin to understand things such as, "I want milk," versus, "Yesterday, I had milk." They begin to understand when they hear adults speaking in different tenses and using different pronouns such as you, me, he, and she. They start grasping this, but they grasp it in a very natural way.

When young children are developing language or two or more languages, the two hemispheres of their brains are very interconnected. They learn in a social context, in relationships, and interactions that they have with the environment from what they hear, how they respond, and how others respond to what they say. At this stage, it's not like when we as adults want to learn a new language. We want to know what goes first, the pronoun or the verb or the objective. We tend to want to learn more with our left hemisphere, the more rational side of our brain. But young children don't learn like that. They actually learn in a much more integrated way. They learn these grammar structures in a more naturalistic way in their environment based on those interactions.

Preschoolers:

• Vocabulary increases
• From simple to more complex sentences
• Fluency in expressing ideas

The vocabulary of a preschooler increases very quickly, especially as they hear more words and higher quality words. When they hear words used correctly in context and hear adjectives, adverbs, and more complex sentence structures, it helps preschoolers increase their vocabulary, grasp how words work, and understand how we communicate. All of this helps them communicate in a more complex way using three-, four-, and then five-word sentences.

Often by age five, children have fluency in expressing their ideas and will very openly share. For example, if you ask a young child to tell you about their weekend, they'd be able to say, "Oh, yes, we went to the beach and it was in Galveston and I saw a shark and it was this big and I ran out of the water and I was afraid, but my mom said it wasn't a shark, that actually, it was probably some other kind of fish." They'll be able to share their ideas, perspectives, and experiences in a complex and fluent way.  This is generally what we would see in preschoolers.

Think about a balanced bilingual child who is developing two or more languages. That child would have the ability to communicate and express in the languages that they are developing. Think back to Maria who I introduced earlier. She would be able to say something in Spanish and at this age also in English if she was exposed to English. Jung at this age would be able to communicate his ideas in Korean and also in English, and the same with Xochitl. It's awesome to think that this moment will come when they develop as balanced bilinguals.

What happens with children who enter a Pre-K classroom but they weren't really exposed to English? For example, in the case of Maria, she went through her first three years of development and most of it she heard Spanish which is what language she developed. Tabors and Snow (2008) are researchers who found that when a child is acquiring a second language when they are not infants there are some stages that they go through. I think it's very helpful to know these stages.

Phases of acquiring a second language

• Home language use
• Non-verbal period
• Telegraphic and formulaic speech
• Productive language use

The first phase, home language use, is where I was when I started Pre-K. I wanted to use my home language. That was what I knew, so I went into my Pre-K classroom and spoke Spanish with my teachers and with friends.

The second phase is the non-verbal period. Once a child realizes that other people don't understand that language, he or she may go through this phase. During the non-verbal period, the child might be a bit quieter. Please note that it is not that the child isn't communicating. He or she is communicating, just non-verbally. If you really pay attention to the child, you'll see that the child is expressing when he or she is frustrated, excited, needs to go to the bathroom, or eager to play. The child is still communicating, but at this stage, he or she is not really using words.

Also, recent research is finding that the brains of children are very active during this period of time. They're using cognitive skills to listen to the new language and all the phonemes and words they are hearing. They're making connections between sounds and the objects that the adults are pointing to, or the actions that the adults are describing. There's a lot going on cognitively. This is an active stage, not a passive one. However, I recommend being really aware and sensitive when children are going through this non-verbal period because they can be a bit quiet. Sometimes we might want to give too much attention to the noisier children or the more active ones. It's key to realize when a dual language learner is going through this stage.

As the dual language learner listens and hears the new language, he or she will start talking in telegraphic speech. The child will start using the new words that he or she is hearing. For example, the child might start saying, "My ball" at this stage. Then the child will begin using formulaic speech, which is three-words sentences. The child might say, "My red ball."

As the child has more practice and uses this new language, he will eventually demonstrate productive language use. The balanced bilingual child will be able to have productive language use of the home language, and also in the second language that they've acquired. 

Language Models in Early Childhood Education

What does this mean for my classroom and for me as an early childhood educator? One thing that's key when you have dual language learners in your program is to know what is the language model of your classroom. What is your approach to supporting and teaching dual language learners in your program? I'm going to walk you briefly through different models that are used in classrooms.

English with Home Language Support

One language model is English with home language support. In classrooms with this language model, most of the day-to-day interactions, instruction, and everything that goes on the classroom is done in English. However, it is highly important that providers know some keywords in that child's home language in order to help the child learn and develop in this new environment.

For example, think back to Jung who hears Korean at home. If I am Jung's teacher and he just entered my toddler program, I would like to know how to say, "Hello" and how to greet Jung and his parents in Korean. I would like to know some keywords that would help express Jung's needs if he's hungry or he's cold. I would also like to know some keywords of the learning objectives that we're going to have when we read a book.

If this is your classroom language model, it's really important to find out what are the keywords to provide support for social-emotional aspects, routines, behavior, as well as your learning objectives. That's what's going to help you support Jung to be successful in your classroom.

Sometimes, classrooms who have this classroom language model might have one teacher that's fluent in one of the languages that the children speak and the other might be very fluent in English. These two teachers provide each other support. If you don't have a co-worker that knows that language, it's key to learn some of these words.

Dual Immersion

Another language model is the dual immersion model. In a classroom with this model, the goal is for all the children to become bilingual. We actually immerse all children in two languages.

Think back to Xochitl who I mentioned previously.  Xochitl is in a Pre-K classroom and speaks Mayan, English, and Spanish. Many other children speak Spanish and some speak English. If this is your model then you've decided that you want all children to learn Spanish and English, regardless of what their home language is. If a child has never heard Spanish at home but is in your classroom and it's a dual immersion classroom, the child will learn Spanish.

If dual immersion is your classroom language model, it's key to bulk languages in time. For example, in the morning all the instruction and communication would happen in Spanish. Then in the afternoon, all the learning and development would happen in English and you would model high-quality English. The next day, you might start with English in the morning and focus on modeling high-quality Spanish in the afternoon. Another option is to focus on one language each day.  For example, on Monday all activities and instruction would be in Spanish, on Tuesday it would be in English, on Wednesday it would be in Spanish, on Thursday in English, and so on and so forth.  You want to group, or bulk, languages so that children are exposed to high-quality language in amounts of time that will allow them to process and take in that language.

Home Language

Another language model is home language. This model would be good to use if you have children that come from the same language background and you as a teacher know how to speak that language as well.  Also, if the program has decided it's beneficial for instruction to take place in that home language this is a good language model to choose.

Think back to Maria, who I spoke about before. She's an infant in a child care program and all the infants in that program hear mainly Spanish at home. The program might decide that the teacher will also speak Spanish and that will be the language that will be used in the program. They will just focus on Spanish. This helps strengthen the home language, which is actually a huge asset for learning and acquiring other languages. The stronger the home language is, the better support children will have as they learn and develop other languages.

However, like in this scenario with Maria, as we go through the school year we might start introducing a little bit of English. This may only be 10% of the day with some songs and activities where we'll start modeling high-quality English. Later you might introduce 20% of the time in English and 80% will be in Spanish. Then we'll start rolling in 30% English and 70% Spanish and so on. That way, we're making sure that the home language is very strong and we are strategic as we start introducing other languages.

We see this kind of model, especially in infant and toddler programs, but also in some Pre-K programs as well, depending on the scenario. It's important and key for you as an educator to know what your language model is because you will have to make strategic decisions about how to support your Dual Language Learners, based on your language model.

English Only

The last language model is English only. You would only use this language model if all the children in your classroom had only heard English and never been exposed to any other language. However, if this is your classroom language model, you have to make sure that you bring in elements from other cultures. It's key for children to develop cultural responsiveness as a competency, especially in the 21st century. We need children to know about different cultures, to be exposed to them, to be interested, to be curious, and to know how to be respectful of them.

Integrated Dual Language Learners© (I-DLL) - Strategies

Let's dive into some strategies that we can use to support our dual language learners. As I mentioned at the beginning, we're going to be working with the Integrated Dual Language Learners system, which I've developed over the years. It's based on research-based strategies from a holistic and integrative approach. In order to make it easy to remember strategies, I've grouped them into three categories which are named in a simple way.

The first category of strategies is called BODY. These are strategies on how to create a learning environment. It's not the body of the child, it's more of the body of your classroom. How do you set up your learning environment? How do you set up systems to better support children and their families from a culturally responsive approach? 

The HEART strategies are evidence-based social-emotional strategies to support dual language learners and to also collaborate with families and establish deeper relationships with families of DLLs.

The third category is MIND. These are actual strategies on how to help dual language learners develop the languages that they're learning and how to help continue supporting their cognitive development so that we make sure that they really thrive.

Let's take a look at some of these strategies that you can use in your program.

BODY Integrated Dual Language Learners (BODY I-DLL)

Culturally responsive systems and learning environments to support DLLs

• Systems
• Learning environments
• Routines and organization
• Curriculum

Systems

These are culturally responsive systems and learning environments to support DLLs. The first element is we need to have a system in place that's really going to help us be successful in supporting dual language learners. It's really helpful that we know what our classroom language model is. Is it going to be English with home language support or is it going to be a dual immersion? Or will it be home language approach or just English? I wanted to point out that English only is not a language model that you can use with dual language learners. The research has shown that teaching them only in English is not the most effective model. You would actually have to incorporate some of their home language as a support to that. You have to really be clear about what your classroom language model you are using at your program and have a planned system to support DLLs.

It's also important to have a system to communicate with families of dual language learners using the language that they're most comfortable with. Whether you are communicating face-to-face, with written communications, or on the phone, you need to make sure that you're able to do it in the language that they're most comfortable with. Once you have those systems in place you can have deep and real conversations. It can also be really helpful to have a system for your approach, your philosophy, your beliefs, and why and how you want to support dual language learners.

Learning Environments

You also want to have a culturally responsive learning environment. To be culturally responsive means knowing about different cultures, having the ability to learn about cultures, the disposition to want to learn about them, the curiosity and ability to ask and find out about different cultures, and the ability to respect different cultural perspectives. The more we're able to do this with the families of our dual language learners, the more successful we'll be.

When I talk about having culturally responsive learning environments I mean going above and beyond the touristic approach. For example, the touristic approach is the stereotype of a culture such as saying because there's a Mexican child and family in your classroom you're going to put pictures of Mariachi bands. What if this child actually comes from a village in Chiapas and in this village, they've never seen a Mariachi band before. That's not a way to respond and mirror back this child's culture because you're using a stereotype.

You want to be very authentic as you set up the learning environment. That will require you, as the teacher, to really be open and responsive to the children and families in your program and to learn about their values, dreams, and aspirations. Find out what the most important things and experiences are for them in their lives and find ways to incorporate that in your physical learning environment. Think about that with the modalities that you use and the materials, music, books, and activities you bring in. You want your classroom to be a reflection of and a response to the authentic and real culture of that child or children.

Routines and Organization

You also want to have very clear routines about how you organize your program so that you're helping meet the needs of your dual language learners. This might require you to make accommodations in terms of labeling things such as behavioral expectations or routines in different languages. You might include pictures as you communicate with families so they're able to explain the information in the home language with children.

Curriculum

In terms of curriculum, you want to make sure that the curriculum that you're using is very intentional and flexible so that you can make variations to meet the cultural background of your DLL. Choose a curriculum that is outcomes-based, research-based, and linguistically responsive.

HEART Integrated Dual Language Learners (HEART I-DLL)

Let's talk about HEART strategies. These are social-emotional strategies to support dual language learners and strategies to build deeper relationships with families of dual language learners.

Intentional Teacher-Child Relationships with DLLs

Research has found that teacher-child interactions are key. This is especially true with dual language learners. As educators, we need to be really intentional in establishing relationships with these children, even if we do not speak their language.

Let's say that Xochitl entered your classroom. Remember, Xochitl speaks a Mayan dialect and she knows some Spanish, but perhaps you the teacher don't know any Spanish. However, maybe you've done your "BODY" homework and you learned some structural words to establish a relationship with Xochitl, such as how to greet her in the morning and say, "Buenos Dias, Xochitl," making sure you correctly pronounce her name. Learning how to correctly pronounce a child's name is a key element in establishing a relationship and also shows respect for the child. 

Pretend that you're a toddler teacher and Jung is in your classroom. He's developing Korean at home and perhaps some English. You might not know any Korean at all, but you see that he's more fluent and comfortable using Korean. If you see Jung playing with some blocks, it's key to be intentional and go and sit next to him and grab a few blocks. Start building with some blocks with him and smile and comment on something he's doing. This sets the stage for Jung that says, "Oh, wow, my teacher really cares about me. She came and sat with me and worked on these blocks with me." 

Social-Emotional Development Support of DLLs and Peer Relationships

Earlier I mentioned that young dual language learners might be going through a non-verbal period where they're processing all the information of their language. Sometimes they can become really quiet. Often we give more attention to the noisy children or the ones who are always raising their hand and saying, "Me, me teacher, I wanna go next." Sometimes it can be easy to forget the quieter children and not give them the attention they need.

For example, I was once in a Pre-K classroom observing a group of children who were having lunch together. It was a very positive emotional experience. Children were giggling and laughing as they shared lunch together. There was a young girl named Maria who was a dual language learner who had just started the program and had very limited English. Spanish was the language she was most comfortable with. She was so quiet. She was spending time with the more verbal children and the children were talking more with peers that they could talk with than with her. I could tell from her facial expression that Maria was starting to feel very left out and disconnected. She suddenly grabbed her little fruit tray and turned her back to the other children and pretty much ate on her own. You could see that there was a sad expression on her face.

We can be excellent teachers, but we also need to be intentional teachers. This is important to remember with all children, but especially with dual language learners. Be very aware of the dual language learner. For example, "Hey, Maria, I noticed you're eating some grapes. John is eating grapes too." Find a way to start incorporating Maria with the other children so that she starts developing peer relationships. Be there to scaffold and help support those relationships. 

Family Collaborations

Family collaborations are key in establishing a real connection with families of dual language learners. This is sometimes challenging because you might not speak the same language of the family. You might need an interpreter to be there as a support. It's key for us to be able to have an authentic and real conversation about their family, their experiences, their child, and their dreams and aspirations for their child. Talk about the plans they have for them and connect in an authentic and real way so that we work together as a team for the child. Go above and beyond the, "Hello, hi," or, "Oh, yeah, I have this questionnaire about your family, therefore I know everything about your family." We want to go deeper than that to be very effective to meet the needs of the dual language learner.

MIND Integrated Dual Language Learners (MIND I-DLL)

Language

In terms of language, it's key for us to know what our classroom language approach is. Let's say that I am Maria's teacher in the infant classroom. We decided that since all the children come from Spanish-speaking families and we have staff that speaks Spanish, then the way we will help Maria develop Spanish will be by modeling high-quality Spanish. We will talk with infants about the here and now in Spanish. I'll model and talk about my actions and about the objects that are with me in the present moment. I'll talk about what Maria is doing and mirroring her actions with words using high-quality Spanish and full sentences. She will have the experience of hearing high-quality Spanish and then I will support her to practice her expressive language. So when I hear Maria say, "Le, le, le, le" I will repeat, "Le, le, le, le." If she's asking for milk I'll stretch the word to "Leche" and expand on what she's saying in Spanish.  I'm helping support Maria to develop that language. Then at some point in our program when we introduce English, even if it's just 10% of the day, I will model high-quality English during that time.

For example, if your classroom language model is English with home language support, such as Xochitl's Pre-K classroom, we will model high-quality receptive language in English. As a teacher, I will need to be very intentional to use pictures, objects, and my body to teach language about the here and the now in an explicit and intentional way. We'll support and encourage Xochitl to speak using the language that she's hearing and learning in a very respectful and supportive way. This will give her the experience of using English, but then I'll partner with the family so that they are modeling the high quality, expressive language and receptive language with the home language, which in her case will be her Mayan dialect and Spanish. This way, she's actually developing as a balanced bilingual child.

Cognition

In terms of cognition, a lot of things are happening in dual language learners' minds as their minds are working at full speed. As I mentioned, there are many cognitive benefits of this occurring. The fact that a child might not fully understand the language that you're speaking doesn't mean that they're not smart. They're often actually really smart.

Unfortunately, there has been recent research that shows there are some perceptions and some educators that think it's hard to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to dual language learners if they're lacking English. However, that's not the case. We are able to provide challenging and stimulating cognitive experiences to young children even if they're dual language learners. They are able to learn and develop these higher-order thinking processes and abilities. It just requires us to be strategic.

For example, let's say you are planning a cognitively stimulating activity in Xochitl's classroom involving float and sink experiments. You want children to predict what objects are going to sink or float. Let's say your classroom language model is English with home language support. You have to be strategic to think about what some of the keywords are that you need to make sure that Xochitl understands before you even begin this activity. You might find out how to say sink and float in Spanish. You might find out that to float is flotar in Spanish and to sink is hundir in Spanish. You might have a small group of children including some DLLs and some non-DLLs and say, "Hey, we're going to do an experiment. Come on over. We're going to learn about sinking and floating." You can share with the children the Spanish words you learned for sink and float and Xochitl might think, "Oh, okay, I think I know what this is going to be about." 

You can model and say, for example, "I'm going to put this feather in the water. This is a feather." Now you have modeled the word feather. Since you labeled it, Xochitl will begin to understand this is a feather. You can then ask, "What do you all think? Do you think this feather is going to float and stay on top of the water or do you think it's going to sink and go down into the water? Let's predict, what do you think? Is it going to float, or is it going to sink?" Now Xochitl understands the initial concept of floating and sinking as you're building and scaffolding and introducing the prediction factor into it. She's able to learn out of this science experience.

Whenever you're planning anything that's constantly stimulating, be it infant, toddler, or Pre-K level activities, think about what strategic decisions you have to make in order to be intentional and to make sure that the dual language learner is learning it.

Assessment

In terms of assessment, you want to make sure that you're assessing what children know in the languages that they know and are developing. Make sure that you are also doing a lot of observational assessments as they're developing. Document their progress, specifically what you're seeing that they did not know before or what they are developing. What do they know now? Make sure to keep track of the progress of learning.

Individualized Guidance/Instruction

Make sure that you're individualizing the instruction or guidance of each child. This means to scaffold and meet the dual language learner where he is and to make smart decisions about what it is that you need them to know in order to get to the next level of their learning and development. You have to be very intentional with that.

As I mentioned, this course was just an introduction to the strategies. For more information, here are some additional resources that you can go to. In addition, you can dive deeper into the strategies in Strategies to Collaborate with Families of Infant and Toddler Dual Language Learners, in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association (course 31600) if you work with infants and toddlers or Strategies for Working with Preschool Dual Language Learners, in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association (course 31611) if you work with preschoolers.  Both of these courses can be found in the continued library on ECE.

References and Resources

Tabors, P., & Snow, C. (2008). One Child Two Languages (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

Questions and Answers

Question:

When thinking about the different language models, how do teachers and directors know what's the best language model to choose to use for their classroom, center, or program?

Answer:

Directors of programs and teachers would need to get together and really look at the children that are being enrolled in their program or into a particular classroom. Find out what languages they speak and look at their resources in terms of staffing. What languages do the teachers speak? What languages are they fluent and most comfortable with. Then look at the actual resources in terms of materials, books, curriculum, and the reasons that we already have in place. Once all of that is factored in you can make decisions on what would be the best to meet the needs of the children of a particular classroom.

For example, if you have an Infant and Toddler classroom and all the children are from a Spanish-speaking community, you do have the staff that speaks that language, you have materials and books in Spanish, and are able to make changes and adjustments to the curriculum to do it all in Spanish, it might be very beneficial to give them the base and foundation of the home language of Spanish. You could then strategically begin introducing that language.

Another example is if you have a program where half of the children speak, let's say Mandarin, and half of them speak English or another language, and there are staff that is very fluent in Mandarin. If you think it would be beneficial for all the children that you're serving to learn both Mandarin and English and you have the staff and access to materials and think it would be a benefit, the program might decide to open a classroom that's a dual immersion classroom. You would have to make those strategic decisions based on children, staff, and resources.