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##  What Early Childhood Teachers Need To Know about Language. ERIC                 Digest.                                                                      

Considerable evidence exists that high-quality early childhood                  education programs for children from birth to age five can have                 long-lasting, positive consequences for children's success in school            and later in life, especially for children from low-income                      families (Barnett, 1995; Frede, 1995). However, such programs are               not available for all children who need them, nor are all programs              of the quality that is necessary to achieve positive outcomes for               children. In fact, only about 15% of child care centers are judged              to be good or excellent. A recent study of a random sample of Head              Start programs found that, while none of the programs was poor, the             level of quality varied, and support for language and literacy                  learning was weak in many programs. Not surprisingly, children in               the better quality programs out-performed children in lower quality             programs on measures of learning and development (U.S. Department of            Health and Human Services, 1998). Overall, Head Start children's                expressive language skills were below national norms, but in the                better quality programs, children's scores approached or matched                those of their middle-class counterparts. 
Recently, the U.S.                  Department of Education released a study of the skills and knowledge            of a nationally representative cohort of children at entrance to                kindergarten showing that social class and other group differences              are already evident this early (West, Denton, & Germino-Hauskin,                2000). This finding suggests that kindergarten is too late to                   intervene in order to narrow the achievement gap. High-quality early            childhood education programs have great potential for preventing                later school failure, particularly if they place a strong emphasis              on language development. For this reason, early childhood teachers              need thorough knowledge about language and how to help children                 develop language and literacy skills. Often teachers haven't had                opportunities to build the knowledge they need. EARLY CHILDHOOD               EDUCATION IN CONTEXTEarly childhood programs operate in a                   variety of public and private settings under a range of state                   standards, all of which are minimal. Unlike the K-12 educational                system, in which certified teachers with baccalaureate degrees are              the norm, early childhood programs are often staffed by teachers                with minimal qualifications. 
The context of early childhood                   teacher preparation varies greatly depending on state licensing                 standards for teachers. It is only within the last decade that the              majority of states have had specialized licensure for early                     childhood teachers (Ratcliff, Cruz, & McCarthy, 1999). A number of              states have an early childhood license that begins at kindergarten,             which means that there is no baccalaureate-level preparation                    specific to serving children ages birth through four. Many child                care teachers attend associate-degree-granting institutions that                offer majors in early childhood, but these programs do not provide              the depth and breadth of language preparation that Fillmore and                 Snow (2000) call for in their article, "What Teachers Need to Know              About Language." 
The most significant barrier to ensuring that                early childhood teachers have a broad and deep knowledge of language            is the inferior compensation offered in most programs. Currently,               teachers in programs for young children receive average salaries                that are less than half of those of public school teachers (Cost,               Quality, and Child Outcomes Team, 1995). This lack of adequate                  compensation leads to high staff turnover, making it impossible to              recruit and retain well-qualified, well-educated teachers. 
A                  further complicating factor for early childhood programs is that                they are now being brought into the standards and accountability                movement that has had a major impact on K-12 education. States are              adding pre-kindergarten standards and assessments, and Head Start is            incorporating child outcome data as part of its evaluation and                  accountability systems. Very young children, including children                 whose home language is not English, are expected to demonstrate                 specific progress on identified learning outcomes, which always                 include language and early literacy objectives. WHY DO EARLY                  CHILDHOOD TEACHERS NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT LANGUAGE?Fillmore and            Snow identify five teacher roles that are relevant to working with              young children: communicator, evaluator, educator, educated human               being, and agent of socialization. Some of these roles are                      particularly critical for language learning because the early years             are the foundation for what occurs later. 
Communicator. 
The role            of conversational partner is especially important in the preschool              years when children are just beginning to acquire language. Young               children develop their language skills through interactions with                more accomplished speakers of the language, such as parents, family             members, and teachers, as well as other children. When children are             served in groups, the teacher's role as interlocutor is very                    complex. Often children whose language is more advanced are spoken              to more often by adults. Thus children whose language development is            lagging receive less language interaction than they need, and those             who need less actually get more. 
Although most early childhood                teacher preparation programs address language development, little               emphasis is given to the role of experience and learning, especially            within the social and cultural context. Because this dimension of               language acquisition is overlooked, many teachers do not know how to            support children's language learning at various levels of                       development nor recognize when language development does not proceed            as expected. Early childhood teachers need to talk with children in             ways that ensure that their language continues to develop, their                vocabulary increases, and their grammar becomes more                            complex. 
Evaluator. 
More and more, early childhood teachers are             thrust into the role of evaluators of children's language. This has             always been a difficult role, because it involves attempting to                 identify children who may have developmental delays or disabilities.            When young children are in the early stages of acquiring language,              it is especially difficult to obtain valid and reliable data on                 their capabilities. Is performance variance attributable to normal,             individual variation in rates of development, to experiential                   variation that is relatively easy to remediate, or to an actual                 delay? For teachers of students who speak a language other than                 English at home or who speak a vernacular dialect of English, this              role is even more complex. 
Educator and educated human                        being. 
Teachers of young children need to be generalists in their             knowledge of the world, because children are interested in just                 about everything that goes on around them. This does not mean that              early childhood teachers must have every fact at their disposal, but            it does mean that they need to have the extended vocabulary,                    curiosity, and skills to find out what they want to know. 
Agent of            socialization. 
By school entrance, the processes of socialization             and language development are well under way. When children are                  served in programs outside of the home beginning as babies,                     toddlers, and preschoolers, socialization occurs simultaneously in              two environments. It is especially important to respect students'               home languages and cultures. WHAT SHOULD THE EARLY CHILDHOOD                  CLASSROOM TEACHER KNOW?Although oral language development is a              primary goal in early childhood programs, learning experiences and              teaching strategies do not always support this goal. Layzer,                    Goodson, and Moss (1993) report on a study of the experiences of                four-year-old children from low-income families in three types of               preschool programs--Head Start, Chapter 1-funded pre-kindergartens,             and child care centers. Acceptable levels of quality were maintained            in all program types, and a wide variety of activities was generally            available. However, some findings caused concern. For example, more             than 25% of the classrooms did not have a story time, either for the            whole group or for smaller groups. In addition, while teachers spent            about two thirds of their time involved with children, only 10% of              their time was spent in individual interaction. In fact, more than              30% of children across all classrooms had no individual interaction             with a teacher. And in a study of language development at home, Hart            and Risley (1995) found significant differences among social class              groups in both quantity and quality of children's early language                experience. 
Early childhood teachers need to know the value of                one-to-one, extended, cognitively challenging conversations and how             to engage in such communication, even with reluctant talkers. They              need to know how the lexicon is acquired and what instructional                 practices support vocabulary acquisition. They also need to know how            to conduct story reading and other early literacy experiences that              promote phonological awareness and prepare children for later                   success in reading (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). 
Children also              need time for social interaction and play with peers, which provide             excellent opportunities for language acquisition. But here again,               the potential of the early childhood context is unrealized.                     Opportunity for peer interaction may be insufficient because young              children are perceived to need more instruction. Early childhood                programs are often economically segregated so that children who need            them most often lack peer models of school-sanctioned language. In              addition, children who are acquiring English as a second language               need to interact with native-speaker peers, but often they do not               because they are served within their own language community and the             teacher is the only one who speaks English. 
Fillmore and                      Snow (2000) also address important issues pertaining to written                 language. One topic that they do not address in detail is phonics               instruction and its relationship to precursors in phonological and              phonemic awareness. Because phonics instruction has been so                     politically controversial, these are topics that childhood teachers             need to know more about, including appropriate ways for teaching                young children. Most early childhood teachers do not have sufficient            training in how to support early literacy learning. They need to                know how much phonics children need to know, how to know which                  children need more or less explicit phonics instruction, and when to            stop teaching phonics to which children. 
Early childhood teachers             should also have an understanding of cultural and linguistic                    diversity, and of learning and teaching that addresses the youngest             age, including children who have not yet acquired a foundation in               their home language. CONCLUSIONEarly childhood educators face             tremendous challenges in supporting children's language development.            Given that children acquire language best in meaningful contexts,               through conversational interactions, and through encounters with                written language, these must be the focus of instruction for teacher            candidates. 
Knowing what teachers need to know about language                 demands that the issue of teacher qualifications in early childhood             education be addressed. Teachers of young children must obtain more             education, better compensation, and greater respect. Their role in              supporting children's language acquisition is the bare minimum of               what they have to contribute to children's well-being and future                potential. REFERENCESBarnett, W.S. (1995). Long-term effects              of early childhood programs on cognitive and school outcomes. "The              Future of Children, 5," 25-50. 
Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes              Study Team. (1995)."Cost, quality, and child outcomes in child care             centers" (Public Report, 2nd ed.). Denver: University of Colorado at            Denver, Economics Department. 
Fillmore, L. W., & Snow,                        C.E. (2000). "What teachers need to know about language." [On-line].            Available: http://www.cal.org/ericcll/teachers/teachers.pdf 
Frede,            E. (1995). The role of program quality in producing early childhood             program benefits. "The Future of Children, 5," 115-32. 
Hart, B., &            Risley, T. (1995). "Meaningful differences in the everyday                      experience of young American children." Baltimore:                              Brookes. 
Layzer, J., Goodson, B., & Moss, M. (1993). "Life in                 preschool: Volume one of an observational study of early childhood              programs for disadvantaged four-year-olds." Cambridge, MA: Abt                  Associates. 
Ratcliff, N., Cruz, J., & McCarthy, J. (1999). "Early             childhood teacher education licensure patterns and curriculum                   guidelines: A state-by-state analysis." Washington, DC: Council for             Professional Recognition. 
Snow, C., Burns, S., & Griffin,                     P. (1998). "Preventing reading difficulties in young children."                 Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 
U.S. Department of Health             and Human Services. (1998). "Head Start program performance                     measures: Second progress report." Washington, DC: Author. 
West,              J., Denton, K., & Germino-Hauskin, E. (2000). "America's                        kindergartners: Findings from the Early Childhood Longitudinal                  Study, kindergarten class of 1998-1999, fall 1998." Washington, DC:             U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education                     Statistics. 
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This Digest is drawn from a commentary by Sue             Bredekamp on "What Teachers Need to Know About Language," by Lily               Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow. 
This digest was prepared with               funding from the U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational                 Research and Improvement, National Library of Education, under                  contract no. ED-99-CO-0008. The opinions expressed do not                       necessarily reflect the positions or policies of ED, OERI, or NLE.           **Title:** What Early Childhood Teachers Need To Know about Language. ERIC                 Digest.                                                                      **Note:** Digest drawn from a commentary by Sue Bredekamp on "What Teachers               Need To Know about Language" by Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine                Snow. Both are available at http://www.cal.org/ericcll.                      **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Target Audience:** Practitioners, Teachers                                                      **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, 4646 40th Street               NW, Washington, DC 20016. For full text:                                        http://www.cal.org/ericcll/DIGEST.                                           **Descriptors:**  Knowledge Base for Teaching, Language Acquisition, Language Skills,             Linguistics,  Literacy,  Preschool Education, Second Language                  Learning, Skill Development,  Teacher Education                              **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests                                                                 
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