California Preschool Learning Foundations - ECEZero2Three ...

FOUNDATIONS IN
English-Language
Development
California is experiencing a dramatic
increase in the number
of children from birth to five
years of age whose home language is
not English. Currently, one in four
California students—25 percent—in
kindergarten through grade twelve are
identified as English learners (California
Department of Education [CDE]
2006a, b). The term “English learners”
refers to children whose first language
is not English and encompasses children
learning English for the first time
in the preschool setting as well as children
who have developed various levels
of English proficiency (Rivera and Collum
2006). For the majority of these
children, Spanish is the home language,
followed by Vietnamese, Cantonese,
Hmong, Tagalog, Korean, and
other languages (CDE 2006a). Whereas
25 percent of California children in
kindergarten through grade twelve are
identified as English learners, English
learners represent 39 percent of children
in California between three and
five years of age (Children Now 2007).
Given this reality, the development
of preschool learning foundations must
take into consideration how young
children whose home language is
not English negotiate learning in all
content and curricular areas. For all
children, the home language is the
vehicle by which they are socialized
into their families and communities.
Children’s identity and sense of self
are inextricably linked to the language
they speak and the culture in which
they have been socialized, which takes
place in a specific family context (Crago
1988; Johnston and Wong 2002;
Ochs and Schieffelin 1995; Vasquez,
Pease-Alvarez, and Shannon 1994).
In addition, in most families, children
are first introduced to language and
literacy in the home language, and
those experiences provide an important
foundation for success in learning
literacy in English (Durgunoglu and
Öney 2000; Jiménez, García, and Pearson
1995; Lanauze and Snow 1989;
Lopez and Greenfield 2004).
Researchers have documented the
fragility of a child’s home language and
cultural practices when they do not
represent the mainstream or are not
highly valued. Genesee, Paradis, and
Crago (2004) caution that, “dual-language
children are particularly at risk
for both cultural and linguistic identity
displacement.” Loss of the home language
may diminish parent-child
communication, reducing a parent’s
California Department of Education • Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 1 103