Are Preschool/Day Care Personnel Ready for Non-English-Speaking Children?

Abstract

0 The greatest development in language takes place between birth and 8 years of age. These early childhood years are crucial to all aspects of children's physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development (Bredekamp, 1987; McGee & Richgels, 1990; Perez & Torres-Guzman, 1992; Ziegler & Lang, 1991). An estimated 8 million children in the U.S. spend a part of those years in preschools or day care centers and many of them come from homes where a language other than English is spoken. Although it is difficult to estimate the numbers of non-English-speaking children in preschool/day care settings, the population of non-Englishspeaking children aged birth to 4 years in the U.S. was estimated to be 2.6 million in 1991 (Diaz Soto, 1991). For non-English speakers, preschool/day care settings may be the first encounters with an all-English-speaking environment. Children's attitudes toward and perceptions of not only self but schooling and their place in U.S. education begin to be formed by experiences in preschool/day care settings. Activities and climate must be developmentally appropriate for L2 learners in order to maximize their growth in all areas. This means that caregivers in preschool/day care settings must have some understanding of what is developmentally appropriate for L2 learners. Teachers who care for children learning an L2 in the preschool years should have an understanding not only of first language development but of second language acquisition (SLA) as well. Further, an awareness and understanding of the culture surrounding the students' L1 is also crucial to the cognitive, social, and emotional growth of children. What teachers of second language learners should know is well documented (Ada, 1986; U.S. Department of