Bidirectionality in Teacher Discourse Strategies among Preschool Dual Language Learners

Rojas, Natalia Margarita, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Laurie Brotman at New York University School of Medicine, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating relationship between teachers' use of discourse strategies and dual language learners (DLL) vocabulary and social competence development throughout the early childhood education (ECE) year - a time of, particularly rapid growth. The findings will further the fields' understanding of the complex relationship between DLL children's vocabulary and social competence skills and teachers' discourse strategies specifically from a bilingual rather than monolingual perspective. The long-term implication of this work is to reduce inequitable ECE experiences by improving the quality of teachers' practices that support DLLs unique developmental trajectories. DLLs, children who are acquiring their home language as they also learn English as a second language, are the fastest-growing segment of the child population in the United States, and their developmental skills have historically lagged behind monolingual English-speaking peers. Very little is known about whether teachers of DLLs are enhancing their discourse strategies (one of the more proximal determinants of children's development) to meet the unique linguistic and developmental needs of DLLs. Discourse processes may be bidirectional; with teachers' discourse strategies shaping as well as being shaped by the DLL children's developmental (vocabulary and social competence) characteristics. Yet, our understanding of the ways that teachers are adapting their discourse strategies with DLL children and how their discourse strategies with DLLs may shift throughout the ECE year, as DLL children improve in their vocabulary and social competence skills, is scarce. Using data from a larger study taking place in New York City, the present study will evaluate the simultaneous and bidirectional relationship between teachers' use of discourse strategies and its associations with DLLs' vocabulary and social competence development across three time points during an ECE year. By exploring the dynamic nature of teachers' use of discourse strategies and DLL children's skills development, the present work expands from the focus of the field on classroom practices, to try to unpack the complex relationship between language, practices, and learning, which is only partially understood. This study addresses methodological limitations of observational tools through the use of a novel child-level observational tool, which applies a developmental perspective to quality measurement that is sorely lacking for this growing population. Finally, elucidating the trajectory of discourse strategies and children's vocabulary and social competence development across multiple time points will provide a more nuanced understanding that can bear evidence for future research and interventions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.