Research Highlights

The practices listed here can be applied with preschool children in general. Research showing which ones work best with English Learners is just emerging. It is important to remember that the goal of any of these techniques is to encourage pleasurable interactions around books for both the adult and the child.

• Read alouds are one way to engage a group of young children in following a story or text. For English Learners, small group read-alouds will ensure greater participation from each child in the group. It will also allow the teacher to monitor learning for each child. Some bilingual teachers artfully use English and the home language in read-a-loud book readings, both in the reading and in the discussion of the text or story.
• Find ways to encourage children to use their home language to react, predict, and review parts of a story or passage when they are not yet at a level in their English language development at which they can contribute in other ways. This approach increases the English Learners' experience of inclusion and promotes other areas of cognitive and social development.
• Introduce key concepts and/or vocabulary in a story or text in both the children's home language and in English before reading it to the children, so that everyone has familiarity, understanding, and connection to at least some of the story's terminology or vocabulary when possible.
• Review key or novel vocabulary using the strategy of "Text Talk". In text talk, the teacher identifies a few words (2 to 4) in the text or story. Each word is 1) read as was used in the text and then children are asked to repeat the word along with the teacher in order to create a phonological representation of the word, 2) given a definition easily understood by preschoolers, and 3) used in a context other than in the same story.
• Use Dialogic Reading with one child at a time or with a small group of children. In Dialogic Reading, the adult 1) increases the number of times he or she asks the child to name objects in the pictures or drawings in picture books, 2) uses "what" and open-ended questions as a way of encouraging the child to say more than one word at a time, and 3) expands on the child's response as a way to teach vocabulary and tell more complete descriptions of what the child sees.

Another key literacy practice for English Learners is to provide multiple ways for children to revisit the same text in other areas of the classroom or in other activities. This practice allows teachers and students both to expand beyond read-alouds and to repeat and review story elements and vocabulary. Teachers can make use of flannel board re-enactments, puppet or doll figure re-enactments, story boxes with major props from the story, art, and writing activities connected to a story, home/family backpacks related to the story, as well as songs and fingerplays related to the story as ways to supplement the reading experience and make it "come alive". Companion computer programs can serve as a way to review the story, reinforce vocabulary, and provide an alternative means for children with disabilities to "read" alongside their peers. These purposeful and multisensory options of using different types of visual presentations and manipulatives can be used in small group, individual, or whole group instructional settings to provide different opportunities for English Learners to interact with the story and contribute to further discussions.