Prekindergarten Teacher Perceptions of Language-Minority Dual Language Learners’ Developmental Abilities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Dual language learners (DLLs) are a growing student population in the United States, especially in early childhood. However, DLL growth is uneven across the United States, and in many classrooms, DLLs will constitute a language minority—that is, they will be the sole or one of few students who speak a non-English home language. Given the importance of teacher perceptions for children’s development, data are needed to understand how early childhood teachers view their language-minority DLL students. We use prekindergarten data collected in the American South and two-level hierarchical linear modeling to examine teacher perceptions of language-minority DLL students’ end-of-year academic and social-emotional abilities. Findings indicate that teacher perceptions of language-minority DLL status were positively related to social-emotional abilities, but non-significantly related to academic abilities. Implications include collecting localized data in order to understand how early childhood teachers perceive their language-minority DLL students and using these data to enhance teacher training.