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Supporting Preschool English Language Learners: First 5 LA Blazes the Path

February 8, 2010
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Young children starting school must grasp a constellation of basic concepts, from reading and mathematics to how to interact with their peers. For a young child who does not speak English, learning the fundamentals may seem especially overwhelming.

How do we ensure preschool-age English language learners (ELLs) are ready for kindergarten?

The Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS), a collaborative study involving First 5 LA, Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) and Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., seeks to inform national policy on instructional practices supporting ELLs. 

"There is a growing body of research illuminating high quality instructional practices for ELLs," says Christine Ong, a research analyst at First 5 LA. "But we still have much to learn about what is happening on a day-to-day basis, what types of instruction ELL children are getting, and what are the best approaches for supporting their development."

Now in its third phase, the UPCOS study builds on findings from earlier phases and examines the instructional practices that LAUP providers use with ELLs. An aim of the study is to identify and provide a detailed description of best practices that could be implemented in other parts of the nation to support preschool-age ELLs.

Earlier UPCOS findings suggest that LAUP enrolled children from households where Spanish is primarily spoken, tend to lag behind their English-speaking peers academically. This finding is similar to those in other studies, and underscores the need to improve the approaches currently used by ELL teachers. 

A recent summary of ELL research by Claude Goldenberg, professor of education at Stanford University and member of First 5 LA's Research Advisory Committee, indicates that teaching students to read in their native language leads to better reading skills in English. Goldenberg also cites research suggesting that when ELLs are taught in English, instructors must adjust their teaching to take into account the fact that ELL students are learning academic content while simultaneously learning the language in which the content is being taught.

Ong emphasizes that the UPCOS study hopes to influence policy that will better support practitioners in their efforts to instruct ELLs. "Researchers across the country are interested in what we're doing in part because of the sheer diversity of L.A. County," Ong said. "It's very exciting.

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Comments

Fri, 02/12/2010 - 11:28 — Anonymous

reply to ELLs and English language proficiency

I would like to try and further clarify a potential misunderstanding about the nature of First 5 LA’s most recent Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS). First, it is important to keep in mind that the First 5 LA UPCOS study is a descriptive study with the primary goal of better understanding and describing the range of instructional practices that are currently being used with English Language Learners (ELLs) across the various LAUP programs and it is NOT an evaluation of a particular instructional model (ELL or otherwise). In other words, the goal of the study is to better understand what approaches are currently being used by teachers in classrooms with the rather linguistically diverse population of children in LAUP programs and is not taking any particular position on what are the best instructional approaches for ELL children. Second, the design of the descriptive study has been informed by the latest available research on ELL instructional practices. By utilizing findings from the latest research, the study will be better able to capture the range of issues that have been shown to be important factors contributing to ELL children’s academic success. For example, as noted by both of the previous comments, there is in fact some research supporting the need for children to be taught specific language and literacy skills in English, such as phonological skills, vocabulary and comprehension. Claude Goldenberg further mentioned that there is some evidence supporting the use of a child’s home language to help facilitate both their reading development and learning English. In addition, the provision of some support for a child’s home language also can help facilitate not only the home language and literacy activities that he mentioned, but also may promote more active parental involvement, especially for those parents who may themselves be less proficient in English and therefore less comfortable engaging in learning activities at home, as well as communicating with the child’s teachers. We need to ensure that we are supporting the parents as well, as they provide a critical foundation for learning above and beyond our educational programs. Both of the above findings are not necessarily at odds with each other, but rather suggest possible components that might be important to incorporate into a more comprehensive curricular approach used with ELL children. These are the kinds of research findings that have helped shape the current First 5 LA UPCOS study. I think we all share the goal of wanting to provide the best quality educational experiences for our children, including children from diverse backgrounds. We certainly cannot afford to raise a generation of linguistically and/or academically mediocre Latino children, who do not master either language and then are at risk for school failure. Hopefully, the First 5 LA UPCOS study will in fact provide a much richer description of what is currently being used in different LAUP classrooms, which will then help generate suggestions for how to best serve the growing population of ELL children and ensure their academic success. Michael L. López, Ph.D. Executive Director of the National Center for Latino Child & Family Research & Research Consultant to First 5 LA (Michael.Lopez@LatinoChildResearch.org )
Fri, 02/12/2010 - 10:47 — Anonymous

Ms. Noboa-Castro, Many

Ms. Noboa-Castro,

Many people share your concern that teaching children to read in their home language will harm their chances of being successful in English. I know it's hard to believe, but we have very credible research--as well as direct experience by many people--to suggest that is not the case. In fact studies have shown that learning to read in the home language (studies are mostly with Spanish-speakers, since that's where the biggest numbers are) usually helps boosts reading achievement in English. I'm not making a theoretical case… these are actual studies with actual children.

The reason that learning to read in your home language usually provides a boost to reading achievement in the second language is that it's easier to learn to read in a language you understand, then that knowledge of how to read transfers over to a second language. (Learning to read in your home language also strongly boosts your home language literacy skills, and there's some benefit as well to being bilingual and biliterate).

I believe the problem we've had in bilingual education in the US is that we've not done a very good job of (a) teaching ELD, in particular, accelerating children's English acquistion and (b) teaching academic content, esp. academic language, to high levels. We MUST do a better job of both of these, and there are many people around the country working on addressing these challenges. I completely agree when you say, "Enough of raising linguistically mediocre Latino children, who do not master either language."

But as to learning to read in your home language--in addition to, not instead of learning to read in English--the evidence is quite strong that it makes a positive contribution to becoming literate in English.

I'd be more than happy to discuss this further with you, via email or telephone. I will look for a reply from you here, or pls feel free to contact me directly at cgoldenberg@stanford.edu

Claude Goldenberg

Mon, 02/08/2010 - 12:30 — Anonymous

ELLs and English language proficiency

As a recently retired LAUSD teacher who has witnessed the failure of U.S. born children who have been "captured" by the Home Language Survey, labeled as ELLs, and prevented from mainstreaming into the regular academic program, I hate to disagree with this new study which insists in having children learn to read in Spanish. Why is this not the case with children of other home languages, think about it? Because Spanish happens to be a pretty straight forward phonetic language, children from Spanish-speaking homes need to be exposed "early enough" to the intricate phonetic sounds of the English language, which happen to be non existent in Spanish, and need to learn to deal with the phonetic subtleties of the English language until they become second nature. Wouldn't you think that children who are not exposed to these phonetic subtleties at home because their families are not native English speakers would need more and early reading instruction in English? It seems to be a no-brainer to me! Enough of raising linguistically mediocre Latino children, who do not master neither language. These are U.S. born citizens who have unfortunately become second-class citizens because of the language barrier. Our Latino children should speak, read, write, and master the English language just as well as "white" U.S. natives. I'm disappointed with First 5's insistence in perpetuating Latino's lower-class status and keeping children from mastering the English Language by promoting politically correct yet ineffective findings. Respectfully, Cecilia Noboa-Castro noboa-castro@aol.com

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