One Child, Two Languages

A Guide for Early Childhood Educators of Children Learning English as a Second Language

by Patton O. Tabors, Ed.D.

Introduction

Three-year-old Chantal lives in a small city in Massachusetts with her 5-year-old brother, her 20-year-old half-sister, and her mother and father. Chantal and her brother were born in Massachusetts, but their parents and their half-sister immigrated to the United States during a time of political strife in Haiti. Chantal’s father works at a hospital as an orderly, and her half-sister takes English as a Second Language classes at the community college and has a job as a housekeeper at a local hotel. Chantal speaks Haitian Creole at home with her family. This year, Chantal has been enrolled in a Head Start classroom near her home. When she first came to the classroom, she did not speak any English, but during the course of the school year, she has begun to use some English during interactions with the English-speaking teachers and children. When Chantal’s mother comes to pick her up at school each day, she nods and smiles at the teachers but is unable to carry on any conversation with them about Chantal’s activities. After helping to clear one of the tables used for the children’s lunch, Chantal’s mother collects her and leaves the classroom. When the teachers want to schedule a home visit with Chantal’s mother, they ask a social services worker who speaks Haitian Creole to make the appointment and to accompany them on the visit to translate for them.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 20% of the people older than 5 years of age who participated in the American Community Survey of 2005 reported speaking a language other than English. The languages represented in this population were as follows: Spanish, 62%; Indo-European languages, 19.1%; Asian/Pacific Islander, 15%; and others, including Native American, Arabic, Hebrew, and African languages, 4%. Not surprisingly, the arrival of large numbers of immigrant families has impacted early childhood education. Early childhood education programs, from small family child care programs to federally funded Head Start programs, have responded to the arrival of English-language–learning children by developing programs that deal with their linguistic needs in different ways.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION SETTINGS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Early childhood education settings can be divided into three categories related to language use:

FIRST- AND SECOND-LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

When young children such as Chantal are enrolled in an English-language or bilingual early childhood education setting, they begin the process of second-language acquisition. There are two types of second-language acquisition: simultaneous and sequential acquisition.

Simultaneous Acquisition

Occur when children are exposed to both languages from a very early age. Children often demonstrate a capacity to keep their two languages separate and show an understanding of when to use each language.

Sequential Acquisition

Occurs when a child begins to learn a second language after the first language is at least partly established. When children learn a second language in the context of acquiring a first language, the factors that influence second-language acquisition differ from those that influence first-language acquisition.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

This book draws information from previous studies conducted by other researchers, classroom observations, and interviews with teachers, parents, and administrators involved in early childhood education settings. The insights gained are intended to improve early childhood educators' approaches when working with second-language–learning children.