The quantitative study examined 325 classroom scores of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge across time at the beginning (BOY), middle (MOY), and end (EOY) of the year in Pre-kindergarten (Pre-K). The study also investigated the association between Pre-K classroom instructional interactions that supported phonological awareness and…

In early childhood, teacher-child conversations play a crucial role in fostering language learning, particularly vocabulary development. This research examines the mediating role of extended-child-talk between conversation-facilitating (CF) strategies and vocabulary learning in prekindergarten classrooms. Thirty-four teachers' book reading and…

Language learning is an important developmental experience for young children during their preschool years, and book reading is an important context for promoting this growth. Book reading introduces children to a wider range of words than is evident in typical conversations and provides meaningful opportunities to practice using new words in…

Teacher talk has been found to significantly affect children's early language development during shared book reading; however, the mechanism of such influence remains unclear. The current study has zoomed in on vocabulary development in Mandarin as a heritage language (HL) in Singapore kindergartens, 1) exploring the linguistic features (i.e.…

Usage-based theories of language development underscore the importance of children using language to learn language. Few investigations have applied usage-based theories to dual language learners (DLLs), who comprise a growing share of children attending early education programs in the U.S. Three studies were carried out to investigate the role of…

Toddlers from low-income and language-minority immigrant families are at risk for language difficulties due to early disparities in the quality of their home language environment. The present longitudinal study extends previous research by investigating nursery teachers' communicative modalities and functions, and their relations with the…

In this article, I share two critical incidents from the vocabulary lessons in an instructional cycle on immigration with third-grade bilingual students. In sharing these critical incidents, I seek to raise awareness of how colonial legacies of cultural and linguistic domination permeate translanguaging pedagogy. I use critical reflection,…

Despite huge investments in interventions designed to support oral language skills in early childhood and beyond, many of the interventions fail to identify impacts on children's language learning. Programmes may have limited impact because they do not sufficiently succeed in supporting teachers' instructional talk, and thus, more efficiently…

Pressures on primary teachers to improve writing are often to the detriment of quality talk in the classroom. This is despite decades of research emphasising that knowledge and understanding are developed through such talk. Primary teachers' experiences of incorporating the current Spoken Language national curriculum are often at odds with current…

The research has the purpose of analyzing the experience of the students of the first course of the Early Childhood Education Degree on the methodology of the Dialogic Literary Circles. The aim is to examine the variables that influence the academic performance of the future teacher, as well as the conditions that have an impact on their…

We examined the language and reading progress of 336 young DHH children in kindergarten, first and second grades. Trained assessors tested children's language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on their auditory access and classroom…

Research Findings: We examined the amount of preschool lead/assistant teachers' English/Spanish language use and relations between quality of teacher-child interactions, and Dual Language Learners' (DLLs) English/Spanish bilingual vocabulary in 31 English-medium Head Start classrooms. Measures in this study included (a) children's conceptual…

The purpose of this study was to examine how classroom language contexts characterized by peer language skills and proportions of dual language learners (DLL) influenced English language development for DLL and non-DLL children. Participants were 2,131 children from 135 classrooms across preschool through Grade 3. Children were classified into…

Child-directed speech (CDS), which can help children learn new words, has been rigorously studied among infants and parents in home settings. Yet, far less is known about the CDS that teachers use in classrooms with toddlers and children's responses, an important question because many toddlers, particularly in high-need communities, attend…

The association between early language performance and later language and literacy outcomes warrants investigation of strategies teachers can use to maximize children's oral language development during early childhood. Despite a consensus that a language-rich environment is desirable for CHL, there is a limited body of research investigating…