This longitudinal study examined the role maternal responsiveness had on shaping Spanish and English language development in bilingual two year-old children. Because children who are bilingual language learners are oftentimes coming from low socioeconomic families it is essential that we investigate the ways in which they develop language in order to better serve this population. Maternal responsiveness is one source in which we can examine early language development of young bilingual children. Eight Latino mother-child dyads were observed and assessed at three time points. Each observation was coded for maternal responsive behaviors. Regression and multilevel modeling was used in order to assess which maternal responsive behaviors impacted Spanish and English language outcomes. Results indicated joint topic focus as being overwhelmingly impactful across Times 2 and Times 3 in both languages. Additionally, prohibition was found to be negatively influencing English language outcomes at Times 2 and Times 3. Interestingly, focus shift was found to have a positive impact on English language outcomes at Time 2. Given the findings, this work sheds light on the similarities and differences between cultures and the need for further research surrounding this population.

Bilingualism characterizes not only people, but homes, schools, and communities across the United States. While some bilingual people are forced to suppress their bilingualism, others are encouraged to develop their skill set to a level of becoming biliterate. Bilingualism and biliteracy are key features in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs where students are provided daily opportunities to develop two languages simultaneously, along with grade-level academic content. Research in DLBE suggest closure of the achievement gap (Valentino & Reardon, 2015). Traditionally, DLBE programs were designed to keep the two target languages (for example, Spanish and English) separate as designated by time, space, teacher, and academic content area. Teachers who work under these strict guidelines often find that policing language use is both restrictive and unnatural, thus interfering with the flow of bilingual language development. This qualitative case study included 10 teacher participants from one rural school district in the Midwest. The study investigated how teachers perceive and respond to the constraints of language separation during instructional activities. Data were gathered from teacher interviews, classroom observations, and written informal interviews. Findings from this study indicate that under the strict separation of language program model, DLBE teachers brought their unique personal bilingual experiences to their practice by creating opportunities for dynamic and flexible bilingual language use during instructional time. The following strategies contributed to their students’ dynamic bilingualism: (a) the student as teacher, (b) active learning, student engagement, and group work, (c) the use of cognates, (d) strengthening bridges between languages and metalinguistic transfer, (d) reading the word and the world or learning literacy with culturally and contextually relevant literature, and (e) code-switching and translanguaging as a means of addressing the subtractive nature of language learning within an additive bilingual model. On the basis of the findings, the researcher recommends that DLBE program models open spaces for practicing dynamic and flexible bilingualism. Strategizing spaces for the use of two languages during instructional time fosters growth and development for students to become functionally bilingual and biliterate.

High quality early childhood education and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning have gained recognition as key levers in the progress toward high quality education for all students. STEM activities can be an effective platform for providing rich learning experiences that are accessible to dual language learners and students from all backgrounds. To do this well, teachers need professional development on how to integrate STEM into preschool curricula, and how to design experiences that support the dual language learners in the classroom. To address this need, a professional development model was designed to empower preschool educators to provide rich, high-quality STEM learning experiences, with particular emphasis on working in schools serving children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This model was created based on best practices in adult learning and teacher professional development, on developmentally appropriate STEM concepts and teaching interactions, and in collaboration with educators to design professional supports that were responsive to their needs. We worked in under-resourced communities in a North East state in the United States to design a model that is culturally appropriate, and that is flexible enough to be implemented within any curricula and with a variety of materials. In this article, we outline the main components and the iterative design process we undertook to ensure that the professional supports are relevant and effective for teachers and children. Finally, the article presents feedback from educators who participated in the design and implementation of the model, as well as discussion of how our process can inform other teacher educators and those interested in promoting early STEM in diverse preschool settings.

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With the increase in emergent bilinguals and higher standards for all, the challenge for educational stakeholders is to fully utilize dual language programs as a prominent means toward meeting and surpassing rigorous state and national standards. Part of maximizing dual language programs’ impact, and the purpose of this study, was to provide detailed analyses of program models and student biliteracy development. Thus, the research questions sought to explore the level of understanding and implementation of dual language programs in general and the biliteracy component in particular at each campus, before documenting the second through fifth grade English and Spanish reading biliteracy trajectories of students at each school. Both campuses experienced more challenges in the implementation of the program structure, staff quality, and professional development rather than in curriculum and instruction. Furthermore, although both campuses’ students experienced positive trajectories towards biliteracy by the end of fifth grade, each campus was characterized by different rates and correlation between English and Spanish reading growth in each grade. Finally, the researcher conducted a split plot MANOVA to examine how much variance in the biliteracy trajectories was explained by school attendance, gender, initial English oral language and initial Spanish oral language; only school of attendance and initial English oral language levels explained the variance in biliteracy trajectories for students at these campuses.

Young children’s emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The bulk of existing interventions are conducted only in English. There is preliminary evidence supporting that DLL Latino children benefit from Spanish PA and AK instruction; however, few studies include preschool-aged children. This study applied a multiple probe design across units of instruction to evaluate the effects of a supplemental PA and AK intervention delivered in Spanish that explicitly teaches transfer of these skills to English. The aims of the study were to determine: 1) whether children receiving this intervention would make gains in their Spanish PA skills following the intervention; 2) whether they would apply the PA skills they learned from Spanish to English; 3) whether they would make gains in their Spanish AK skills; and lastly; 4) whether they would apply these Spanish AK skills to English. Four Latino preschoolers with limited emergent literacy skills in Spanish and English participated in this study. Bilingual researchers delivered scripted lessons targeting PA and AK skills. The results indicated that children made large gains in their Spanish PA skills and small to moderate gains in their AK skills. Children also applied the skills they learned in Spanish to English. These findings provide preliminary evidence Latino preschoolers who are DLL benefit from emergent literacy instruction that promotes their bilingual and biliterate development.

Students from dual language immersion (DLI) classrooms are required to learn the language through content. However, some students have not yet developed these abilities by the time they start fourth grade. Thus, to fully comprehend content such as science, students need stronger reading and writing abilities in the second language (L2). To help stakeholders have a better understanding on how to effectively help students throughout this process, this action research studied the effectiveness of integrating literacy with science and mobile assisted language learning (MALL). Findings showed that the integrations of literacy, science and MALL were effective with statistically significant results in science and reading. These findings also yielded pedagogical implications about the importance of considering students' language background and gender, as well as the use of MALL when teaching and planning the curriculum for DLI classrooms.

Initiated in California in 2011, the Seal of Biliteracy is a distinguishing graduation recognition honoring the academic success of bilingual biliterate high school seniors. The purpose of this study was to illuminate and describe Texas language education policy discourse by critically examining policies including the Seal of Biliteracy and Texas' House Bill 5 Performance Acknowledgment. This study used the discourse of language policy frameworks, global human capital (GHC), and equity heritage (EH). Viewed as a hegemonic discourse adversely affecting current landscapes of dual language education, GHC is demonstrated by a rise in elite bilingualism and neoliberal effects on language education, including an inclination to commodify and marketize language learning. The EH discourse is focused on language programming and support of emergent bilinguals developing multiple linguistic systems simultaneously, for heritage language maintenance and growth in English. This study critically analyzed Texas macro language policies and discourse alongside the school district's micro level implementation of these policies. Using critical policy analysis, this research explored the interpretation and implementation of Texas language policies, and their impact on language minoritized students. Analytical methods also included a critical discourse and content analysis. Findings revealed an enlightened understanding of the Texas context for the biliteracy seal initiative and how language policy, power, and discourse operate within bilingual education on various levels. Evidence of EH discourse was found, in addition to opposing policies which countered the equity language framework. Implications and recommendations are suggested to minimize language inequalities, prioritizing educational access and equity for marginalized and linguistically diverse students.

This study involved surveying 649 families in Livingston Union School District in Livingston, California, to ascertain parents' motivating factors which led them to enroll their children in a dual-language program at school and to see if there are different motivating factors for English-speaking parents and Spanish-speaking parents. A dual-language program involves integrating students who speak two different languages into a class or program where students learn in both languages. The survey return rate was 41.2%. Of the 268 respondents, 52.9% indicated that they spoke to their children at home in Spanish, 41.4% indicated that they spoke to their children at home in English, 2.6% spoke to their children in Punjabi, 0.3% said they spoke to their children in Urdu, and 2.6% of the respondents declined to answer this question. When asked what motivated the parent to enroll their child in a dual-langauge program, the responses from Spanish-dominant parents were as follows: 90.11% of the respondents enrolled the child in the program because they wanted their child to be able to speak, read, and write in two languages, 67.10% enrolled because they wanted their child to be successful in a global economy, 62% said they enrolled because they wanted their child to be more successful in school, 59.60% said they wanted their child to be comfortable relating to different people and cultures, 57.70% said they wanted their child to be able to relate to his/her heritage, 36.30% enrolled their child because they wanted the child to be with teachers that spoke their language. Approximately 11% wrote in other reasons for enrolling their child in a dual-language program. English-speaking parents chose their reasons for enrolling their child in a dual-language program in almost the same order as the Spanish-speaking parents. However, there are significant differences in the percentage of parents that chose those answers. For example, though the desire to see their child speak, read, and write in two languages was the top choice of both sets of parents, 94.5% of the English-speaking parents chose this answer while only 86.60% of Spanish-speaking parents chose this as their top answer. In addition, there was a significant difference between the two sets of parents when analyzing the choice of wanting their child to be comfortable relating to different people and cultures (English-speaking at 54.90% and Spanish-speaking at 63.3%) and the choice of wanting their child to be with teachers that spoke the same language (English-speaking at 25.20% and Spanish-speaking at 45%). The study ends with recommendation for practice and recommendations for further studies.

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