Across multiple age groups and academic disciplines, research has shown that incorporating multimodal signs into instruction can enhance student learning. For instance, gesture might be synchronized with speech or written signs. The present study reports on the semiotic resources used by a teacher-researcher to support kindergarten students'…

Taking a languaging perspective, this paper considers how kindergarten students and their teacher are relationally and intellectually responsive to one another in authoring conversations by constructing a sense of copresence. Copresence is defined by Goffman (1966) as being "uniquely accessible, available, and subject to one another" (p.…

To date, little attention has been paid to the impact of immersion programs on learning interests in a second language (L2). The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two types of Hakka-Chinese bilingual programs (immersion vs. non-immersion) on L2 learning interests. Four kindergarten teachers (two in each program)…

Internationally, there is growing concern regarding the insufficient preparation of teachers in mainstream kindergartens in terms of teaching for ethnically diverse children. As teacher educators, we are concerned about how to help kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong improve their teaching. In this study, we adopted the research approach of…

Students encounter mathematics word problems as early as kindergarten and continue to see them throughout their schooling experience. Schema instruction with an attack strategy can support students to successfully navigate word-problem solving. Schemas help students categorize word problems by similar characteristics. To better support students…

The current study examines the contribution of racial congruence on young children's speech and language production to determine if African American children produce more or different language with an African American assessor, as opposed to a White assessor. Participants for the current study were selected from a larger group of children…

Even though a substantial body of research suggests that adults' math talk fosters children's mathematics development and willingness to learn mathematics, little is known about how teachers make pedagogical decisions to communicate mathematics to young students. Supported by socio-constructivist and semiotic lenses, the study focuses on the close…

An understanding of cross-cultural differences in narratives, particularly in children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, can help clinicians and other professionals distinguish narrative differences from impaired narratives. This study describes similarities and differences in micro-and-macrostructural components in the…

It has been proposed that an implicit learning deficit explains the difficulties with grammar commonly observed in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The present study further investigates this link in two ways. Firstly, we investigate whether kindergartners with DLD have more difficulties with preposition understanding and…

To explore the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and language domain (vocabulary, syntax, process), the QUILS was administered to 212 kindergartners. Children from very-high poverty schools performed significantly below children from high poverty and mid-low poverty schools. SES impacts language-learning processes (i.e., fast…

Teaching English as a foreign language in early years has become prevalent in response to contemporary trends of English as a global language. However, early childhood teachers may face challenges that would prevent children from achieving success in learning English in different educational contexts. This study explored the challenges that…

Purpose: This study examined the differences in spoken Arabic (SpA) and standard Arabic (StA) in inflectional (gender, number, possessive pronouns, and tense) construction use in Arabic among preschoolers. Moreover, we tested the contribution of the inflectional constructions possessed in kindergarten to reading skills in the first grade and…

This paper reports a study that used a quantitative method to explore literacy planning in Chinese kindergartener families as well as the influences of socioeconomic status (SES) on it. The conceptual framework of family language policy (FLP), which consists of three components--language ideology, language management, and language practice, was…

Vocabulary plays a critical role in later reading achievement of emergent bilingual children (EBC) who are learning two languages. Given emerging vocabulary intervention research for EBC, we synthesize studies on vocabulary interventions designed for preschool and kindergarten EBC to provide the cumulative knowledge on the following dimensions:…

This article illustrates the potential of using children's play and interest in constructive materials like LEGO bricks to support early literacy, particularly in improving the use of descriptive language. The article describes an action plan using storytelling and constructive LEGO play to improve the children's use of descriptive language and…