A Study of Australian Early Childhood Educators’ Attitudes toward Chinese Children’s Home language and English Development in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

This study focused on five Australian early childhood educators’ language attitudes regarding Chinese children’s home language and English development in their early childhood settings 1 . Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with five educators from five early childhood settings. The data were organized and analysed according to propositions from research on teachers’ language attitudes [3] [21] [34]. Findings revealed that the educators held positive attitudes toward Chinese children learning two languages as they acknowledged the functional benefit of bilingualism. However, educators had different ideas about the role they should play in supporting Chinese children’s language development in early childhood settings. Three educators thought their role was to help Chinese children to develop English skills in the settings whereas the other two claimed supporting both home language and English was one of their duties. Educators’ training experiences and Chinese parents’ language expectation were found to be related to educators’ attitudes. The implications of these findings were discussed.