in this issue - wida...radio for musical entertainment, reading spanish newspapers to learn about...

In This Issue

Introduction1

Defining an assets-based approach to

language-focused family engagement

2-3

Learning the language goals that families have for

their children 4-5

Supporting and advocating for the

multilingual goals and aspirations of DLL families

6-7

About WIDA Early Years 7

References and Further Reading

8

THE EARLY YEARS:Assets-Based, Language-Focused Family Engagement for Dual Language Learners

IntroductionFor more than 50 years, family engagement has been considered an important component of young children’s early care and education (Zigler & Styfco, 2010). Organizations with expertise in early child development recommend that family engagement strategies be supportive of families’ future goals and aspirations (Department of Health and Human Services, 2011) be based on mutual trust and respect, and be sensitive to family composition, language, and culture (NAEYC, 2008).

For dual language learners (DLLs) in the early care and education (ECE) system, research shows that ideas and practices that discourage multilingualism negatively affect DLL families’ home language maintenance efforts and can diminish the potential for bilingual development in young children who speak a language other than English at home (Song, 2016). This Focus Bulletin explores multiple ways to effectively engage families of DLLs in their children’s linguistic and cultural development. These topics include the following approaches:

• Defining an assets-based approach to language-focused family engagement that centers on the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of children and their families.

• Learning the language goals that families have for their children.

• Supporting and advocating for the multilingual goals and aspirations of DLL families.

1

OCTOBER 2016

WIDA FOCUS ON

WIDA Early Years Focus Bulletins are published as a resource for practitioners who support, instruct, and assess DLLs in ECE programs. To see additional Focus Bulletins, please visit: wida.us/Early Years

Photo courtesy of Office of Head Start

2 Focus on Early Years| WCER | University of Wisconsin–Madison | www.wida.us

Defining an assets-based approach to language-focused family engagement At the center of an assets-based approach to family engagement with young children (ages 0-5) is an emphasis on the daily activities, routines, interests, talents, capabilities, and strengths of children, families and other caregivers (Wilson, Mott, & Batman, 2004). Practitioners working with young children are encouraged to build genuine and respectful relationships with the children’s families and to learn about their funds of knowledge. Families’ funds of knowledge are “the essential cultural practices and bodies of knowledge and information that households use to survive, get ahead, and thrive” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 21). From a funds-of-knowledge perspective, everyday language and daily routines are understood to be foundational to children’s ability to learn and make sense of new knowledge. Additionally, taking an assets-based approach to families means embracing the Can Do Philosophy in the WIDA Standards Framework: “The belief that all children bring to their learning cultural and linguistic practices, skills, and ways of knowing from their homes and communities” (WIDA, 2014, p. 5).

When families of young DLLs are perceived from an assets-based perspective by those working in the ECE system, practitioners are able to recognize ways parents, siblings, and extended family members contribute to children’s early development, including language learning. Also, when they observe with an assets-based perspective, practitioners can identify learning in naturally occurring activities and then make associations and connections between what goes on in the home and more formalized learning processes that take place in an ECE setting. For example, a practitioner working with Spanish-dominant DLL preschool children should be able to identify several “home cultivated” assets and activities that promote learning: listening to Spanish-language radio for musical entertainment, reading Spanish newspapers to learn about the community, watching Spanish news channels to learn about politics and policies that affect their lives, writing letters and e-mails in Spanish to stay in contact with family members, and attending religious services conducted in Spanish.

Recognizing the potential for children’s language and literacy development in the daily use of the home language is key to achieving an assets-based perspective on language-focused family engagement in the early years. Some of the language and literacy skills learned by young children exposed to Spanish-language-based activities include linguistic prosody (rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech), phonological awareness (ability to focus on and manipulate sounds in words), vocabulary acquisition, development of rhyme and meter through musical lyrics, pre-writing skills, and reading conventions.

Recognizing the educational value in the multiple ways families use the home language is key; however, recognition alone is not enough. Including family members and their language routines in classroom activities is an important next step. For instance, a preschool teacher could plan a literacy activity to take place at either the center or at the home, in which children and a parent or family member would write a letter or make a drawing and send it to another family member living in a different place. For this activity the teacher can suggest including in the envelope an interesting picture, story, or news article from a local newspaper or magazine that the family has at home.

Why is this activity a great way to involve families of DLLs from a funds-of-knowledge perspective?

• It acknowledges and encourages the use of the home language for educational purposes.

• It extends a naturally occurring language and literacy activity that takes place at home (e.g., writing letters to family members abroad).

Focus on Early Years| WCER | University of Wisconsin–Madison | www.wida.us 3

• It incorporates objects used in families’ routines (e.g., using the newspapers or magazines that families have).

• It strengthens familial ties with extended family members.

Unfortunately, when it comes to young DLL children and their families, the focus many times is not one of finding the lingual and cultural strengths, capabilities, and routines that allow these families to thrive. Instead, the focus has been historically on perceived deficits (e.g., the lack of English speaking skills, minimal educational backgrounds, and lack of financial resources).

A yearlong research study showed that when working with Latino immigrant families in a Head Start program, teachers often emphasized children’s and families’ lack of English-speaking skills as well as their lack of experience and knowledge of American culture. Additionally, teachers at times promoted ideas that implicitly discouraged the use of the home language when the home language was not English. For example, at the beginning of the school year, when describing how she plans literacy instruction, Diana (pseudonym)—a preschool teacher in a predominately Spanish-speaking, immigrant community—discounted the linguistic and literacy development that had taken place in the homes of the Spanish-dominant DLL children by stating, “First I want to know how much English they have from home. I want to see how much they are getting from home. I get a good idea at the home visits that we do in the summer. [That is] when we meet all the children and whoever lives with them, you know mom, dad, grandma, brothers. With these kids I knew I had my work cut out when I visited and no one spoke English” (Garcia, Wiese, & Cuéllar, 2011, p. 153).

Diana’s comment is based on a deficit-based standpoint, one emphasizing what the families are missing. Her focus on what the families lacked narrowed her view, which prevented her from acknowledging and incorporating into her instruction the skills (speaking, listening, rhyming) that these children acquired with their families while using their home language.

Furthermore, while Diana is partially bilingual, her comment implied that working with children who are primarly surrounded by Spanish-speakers creates more work for her than if they were exposed to English. Her deficit approach possibly led to adverse consequences: By the end of the academic year, two of the children in her class refused to speak their home language to their families and their classmates. Children’s unwillingness to speak the home language caused significant anxiety at home. Unfortunately, children’s dislike for using the home language is a practice that has been documented by scholars in other studies (Pastor, 2008). This is problematic because research shows that for positive educational

outcomes, schools should maintain a language environment that invites and preserves communication at home for DLL children (Quiroz & Dixon, 2011).

To avoid a deficit-based perspective to parental educational engagement, and develop an assets-based, language-focused family engagement strategy for young DLLs, practitioners are encouraged to embrace the Can Do Philosophy and seek out evidence of family members’ contributions to their children’s learning via everyday activities, including the use of the home language.

An effective and research-evidenced way to access children’s and families’ funds of knowledge and counter a deficit-based perspective for ECE practitioners working with young DLLs is to conduct multiple home visits during which the practitioner can “interact closely with the children and families within their home and community environments, paying particular attention to the language and literacy development of these children and to the ways they, their families and communities use language and literacy” (Reyes, Da Silva Iddings, & Feller, 2016, p. 11).

In short, when practitioners engage in home visits with an open mind and are willing to learn the various ways that families use language, they do not simply seek answers to preconceived questions, as was the case with Diana. Diana’s single concern appeared to be the extent that English was spoken in the home. Incorporating a funds-of-knowledge approach gives practitioners the opportunity to create language-focused, respectful, and informed relationships with children’s caregivers.


Learning the language goals that families have for their childrenLanguage and culture are intertwined and families’ language goals will be, in many cases, connected to cultural ones. Therefore it is key for practitioners to learn about the language goals that DLL families have for their young children. (Song, 2016). To have a truly assets-based engagement strategy, families’ language and cultural goals should be an important consideration in the planning of activities that take place in ECE settings.

In the preschool study on page 3 (Garcia et al., 2011), the language goals of DLL children were documented from the mothers’ point of view. The mothers’ goals for their DLL preschool children included the development of expressive language skills, bilingualism, and identification with the home language and country. These mothers emphasized their desire that their children’s needs be understood by others and that their children develop a deep value of the Spanish language. Spanish was described as a vehicle for cultural development and as a way to strengthen family ties. This can be evidenced from the following quotes that came from four different mothers during multiple interviews and conversations aimed at better understanding the language goals they sought for their children:

Mother 1: “I value for her (preschool child in study) and her brother to be bilingual, but that does not mean that I do not care about Spanish. For me, it is important that she speaks Spanish. Well, we are from Mexico, and, well, we cannot forget that…”

Mother 2: “For little ones like her, just learning how to communicate to say what she needs is the most important.”

Mother 3: “It is my responsibility and I think the responsibility of all Mexican parents living here (meaning in the U.S.) to assure themselves that their children learn Spanish. It’s the language of our family.”

Mother 4: “The culture at home is the Mexican culture. We talk to them in Spanish. Well, it is just that I would not like my children to forget their Spanish.”

These mothers were deeply concerned with making sure their children became fluent Spanish speakers. They expressed a strong desire and a sense of responsibility to instill a strong Mexican cultural identity in their children, which they believed to be indelibly linked to fluency in Spanish.

Diana, the lead teacher at the center, never knew how strongly the families felt about language or the specifics about the families’ language and cultural goals because she never asked the families about their goals. In her classroom she focused only on the

development of the English language and English-based literacy skills.

In order to learn about DLL families’ language-based goals for their children, practitioners are encouraged to have assets-based conversations from a funds-of-knowledge perspective (Reyes et al., 2016) with parents and other caregivers on the topic of language goals and everyday routines. On the next page are some sample questions that practitioners may ask family members in order to identify early language experiences that children have in the home and document families’ language goals for their children.

The answers provided for the sample questions come from Katia (pseudonym), a 24-year old, German-born, German-English bilingual, and mother to Lily (pseudonym), a 10-month old infant. Katia is married to William (pseudonym), a 27-year-old, English-speaking, monolingual man. The family lives near Karla (pseudonym), Lily’s grandmother, who speaks to the baby in German. William speaks to Lily in English. Finally, Katia practices translanguaging when talking with Lily—using both German and English in combination in a fluid manner.


KATIA’S RESPONSES

1. What are the language and cultural goals you have for your child?I want her to be bilingual and bicultural. I want her to speak, read, and write both English and German fluently and to appreciate art, poetry, and music in both languages. I want her to know that she is both German and American. I want her to be proud of both countries.

2. What are the daily routines and typical activities you do that you feel are the most supportive of your goals and promote the language and literacy that you seek for your child?In the mornings I take her to my mom’s and my mom talks to Lily only in German. When she was a tiny baby, I began with only talking to her in German. Now I try to talk to her with both German and English. In the mornings and in the evenings I play music for her to listen to in German and English. As we are doing activities, I talk to her and tell her what we are doing. If we are going to take the freeway, I will tell her “there is a lot of traffic, Lily.”

3. Describe special activities that help support language and culture in your family.Every month we celebrate her birthday and every month we cut a cake, and I sing to her the German happy birthday song!

4. How will you know if your child is moving toward your family’s goals?Right now I know she understands German and English, so I know she is good. A while back I took her to the doctor and when the doctor was talking in English she made a face like she did not

totally understand. That’s when I decided to use some English too. Once she develops language I will listen to her to check if she is fluent, like can she say her sentences without help?

5. What could ECE program practitioners do to help support you and your family to realize the language and culture goals you have for your child?Right now her daycare is in German. It helps to build a good foundation. Somehow I have the idea that keeping German is more difficult.

I know in the world out there it is all English and that the German suffers. Daycare helps me with the solid German foundation before she goes in the English world. In school, I don’t know how to keep going with the German. We might have to wait until high school.

The language-based ideas, concepts, daily practices and routines of monolingual and multilingual speaking families are important to consider in order to truly understand the language and cultural goals that families have for their children. In the case of Katia, we know that she is purposeful in her routines and choice of daycare and that her actions indeed support the language goals that she has for Lily. For all of the mothers of the young children presented in this Focus Bulletin, it is clear that their goal is to raise well-rounded, bilingual, bicultural, biliterate, binational children.

Unfortunately, these families are also plagued with fear that their children might forget their home language and culture or that they might have to “wait until high school.” This uncertainty that their children might forget the home language speaks to the difficulty of maintaining the home language in an English-dominant society. In the next section we outline ways in which practitioners in the early years can further support the families’ efforts in reaching the language and cultural goals they have for their children.

1. What are the language and cultural goals you have for your child?

2. What are the daily routines and typical activities you do that you feel are the most supportive of your goals and promote the language and literacy that you seek for your child?

3. Please describe special activities that help support language and culture in your family.

4. How will you know if your child is moving toward your family’s goals?

5. What could ECE practitioners do to help support you and your family to realize the language and culture goals you have for your child?


Supporting and advocating for the multilingual goals and aspirations of DLL familiesTo support families and advocate for their linguistic and cultural goals, practitioners are encouraged to 1) deeply and critically consider their views on language use and 2) develop pro-bilingual/pro-multilingual advocacy strategies for families.

Practitioners working in ECE settings can use reflection to help them support and advocate for DLL families. Practitioners need to examine their own language ideologies and assure that these do not get in the way of young children learning more than one language.

A recent case study on the bilingual development of Hayoon (pseudonym), a Korean child, shows that when the ideologies held by U.S. practitioners and DLL families are at odds, the child’s potential for bilingualism is threatened. In this study, the English-dominant, school-based, monolingual language ideology was clearly in place and exemplified when the preschool teacher asked Hayoon, “not to speak in Korean” (Song, 2016. p. 16). Hayoon’s mother, Ms. Han (pseudonym), did not agree with the suggestion, but did not feel empowered to question such practice, instead saying, “The teacher was a little strict. But it was her policy [She gently laughs], well, what else could I do?” (Song, 2016, p. 11).

This study shows a stark difference in linguistic goals between the home and school, and is particularly meaningful because Hayoon’s family did not have plans to become permanent residents in the United States. Their stay in the country was only temporary, and they planned to resume life in Korea, where Hayoon would be required to fluently speak Korean.

When practitioners reflect on their perspectives on language-focused, family engagement and utilize an assets-based perspective, they can effectively incorporate families’ non-English repertoire of language skills and abilities and bring equity to the use of diverse languages in ECE settings. To reflect on language ideologies, we encourage educators to think critically about the following questions and to share their thoughts, and talk about their practices with co-workers in professional learning communities:

Once practitioners have reflected on their language ideologies, they must advocate for families and children, as working against injustice is a professional responsibility that can improve the lives of young learners. To begin advocating, practitioners are encouraged to create an early childhood, multilingual, advocacy strategy that will acknowledge that DLL families’ are a guiding force in the language and cultural development of their children.

Language Ideology is a set of beliefs, values and attitudes about language that justify our perspective on linguistic acquisition, socialization and communication. (Silverstein, 1979)

Child Advocacy is a professional responsibility to improve the lives of children by working against injustice. (Royea & Appl, 2009)

• What are my beliefs about the languages and literacy development of DLL children at home and at school?

• How can I learn about families’ language and cultural goals?

• As was the case in the studies described earlier, do any of my language goals and ideologies interfere with the language goals and plans of the families in my center?

• What are some activities that I do with the children that encourage them to use all their languages?

• How do I incorporate some of the language routines practiced at home by families in my program?


In doing so, ECE practitioners are encouraged to take the following actions:

• Actively recognize and celebrate the ways that families’ daily routines help develop their children’s identity, language, and literacy.

• Speak out on behalf of families’ funds of knowledge, including the use of the home language in both children’s homes and in ECE settings for purposes of lingual and cultural development. Communicate meaningfully with families about the language goals of your program (e.g., acquisition of English only, dual language learning, home language maintenance).

• Have empowering conversations with families and other caregivers about the similarities and differences in language-learning goals of your ECE program and their own.

• Communicate meaningfully with families about the development of all languages that each child uses (including their expressive and receptive skills) while participating in routines.

• Organize workshops to review school system regulations and information on local language programs at feeder schools that children are likely to transition to for Kindergarten or transitional Kindergarten.

• Create welcoming spaces where families can meet other families with common language and cultural goals. Together they can take part in decision-making committees, and more effectively implement and advocate for their goals and aspirations.

• Challenge deficit-based views, comments and actions on DLL children and their families.

ConclusionFamily engagement based on mutual trust and respect has been considered basic to the education of our youngest children for a very long time. However, when it comes to DLL children, there is a long history of a deficit-based approach that has given rise to language ideologies in early childhood education settings that are not conducive to their multilingualism, nor to the incorporation of their families’ documented funds of knowledge in their learning. To create an effective language-focused family engagment strategy for DLL families, ECE practitioners enact an assets-based

approach. This approach supports families’ language and cultural goals, self reflections on personal language ideologies, and a multilingual advocacy strategy.

About WIDA Early YearsWIDA Early Years is pleased to introduce a comprehensive set of resources designed to promote the educational equity of young DLLs, ages 2.5-5.5 years. These resources focus on building local practitioner and administrator capacity around supporting early language development.

New publications include Learning Language Every Day! An Activity Calendar for Children Ages 2.5-5.5 Years and Their Families. The 2016-17 Learning Language Every Day! Calendar is now available for purchase in English and Spanish. This large wall calendar (9.5x13.5 inches) is designed to support children’s home language development and learning at home. It features full-color, child-friendly illustrations, suggested word lists, connections to Kindergarten expectations, and cut-out activity cards with developmentally appropriate language-based activities.

A two-page calendar guide for practitioners accompanies each classroom set of calendars. This guide provides tips, resource suggestions, additional language-based activities, and information about home language development.

The Early Years Can Do Descriptors provide examples of what dual language learners (DLLs) can do at various stages of language development. They can help practitioners analyze the language that they observe DLLs use and support their language development through responsive, meaningful interactions in various early care settings. They can also help practitioners anticipate how a DLL might participate in a learning experience and design opportunities to ensure that the child’s participation is as equitable and as meaningful as possible.

These resources can be ordered online from the WIDA Store at www.wceps.org/store/wida.

Please watch for upcoming Focus Bulletins and visit the WIDA Early Years website for more information about initiatives that support DLLs: www.wida.us/EarlyYears or contact the Early Years team at [email protected]

Wisconsin Center for Education Research

University of Wisconsin-Madison1025 West Johnson St., MD #23

Madison, WI 53706

Client Services Center toll free: 866.276.7735

[email protected]

STAFF

Delis Cuéllar, PhDEarly Years Associate Researcher

Julia CortadaProfessional Learning Design

Specialist

Rebecca Holmes, Editor

Design:Janet Trembley

Wisconsin Center for Education Research

© 2016 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

All rights reserved.


References and Further ReadingDepartment of Health and Human Services (2011). The Head Start parent, family and

community engagement framework: Promoting family engagement and school readiness, from prenatal to age 8. Washington DC: Office of Head Start.

Garcia, E., E., Wiese, A.-M., & Cuéllar, D. (2011). Language public policy and schooling: A focus on Chicano English language learners. In R. R. Valencia (Ed.), Chicano School Failure and Success: Past, Present and Future (Vol. 3rd, pp. 143–159). New York, NY: Routledge.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of Knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.

NAEYC (2008). Overview of the NAEYC Early Childhood Program Standards. Washington DC.

Pastor, A. M. R. (2008). Competing language ideologies in a bilingual/bicultural after-school program in Southern California. Journal of Latinos and Education, 7(1), 4–24.

Quiroz, B., & Dixon, Q., L. (2011). Mother-child interactions during shared literacy activities: Education in a fractured bilingual environment. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 12(2), 139–175.

Reyes, I., Da Silva Iddings, A. C., & Feller, N. (2016). Building relationships with diverse students and families: A funds of knowledge perspective. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 16(1), 8–33.

Royea, A. J., & Appl, D., J. (2009). Every voice matters: The importance of advocacy. Early Childhood Education Journal, 37, 89–91.

Silverstein, M. (1979). Language structure and linguistic ideology. In R. Clyne (Ed.), Language structure and linguistic ideology (pp. 193–247). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

Song, K. (2016). “No one speaks Korean at school!”: Ideological discourses on language in a Korean family. Bilingual Research Journal, 39(1), 4-19.

WIDA. (2014). The early English language development standards: 2.5–5.5 years. Madison, WI: Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

Wilson, L., Mott, D., W., & Batman, D. (2004). The asset-based context matrix: A tool for assessing children’s opportunities and participating in natural environments. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 24(2), 110–120.

Zigler, E., & Styfco, S. J. (2010). The hidden history of Head Start. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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