Monolingual and multilingual kindergartener’s early literacy and executive functioning

A high classroom quality, with good teacher-child interactions, is important for the development of children. But, as successful development implies a good match between a child’s characteristics and the environment, it might differ per child what entails good teacher-child interactions. Moreover, it is important that children are engaged in the interactions and activities in the classroom to be able to learn from them.

In this project, we examined how learning opportunities are different for sequential bilingual children compared to monolingual children. This was studied by observing during one year the teacher-child interactions, activities, engagement and development in 20 kindergarten classrooms. This project expanded the knowledge on how learning environments can be made effective for children with different backgrounds.

PhD thesis

Multilingual and monolingual children in kindergarten classrooms: exploring teacher-child interactions and engagement as learning opportunities

Employees

Annegien Langeloo (PhD student)
Marjolein Deunk
Mayra Mascareño Lara
Jan-Willem Strijbos