Core Values

The following set of core beliefs stem from research and reflect an understanding of the challenges, complexities, and strengths that exists in the development, everyday experiences, and education of preschool English Learners. These core beliefs provide a foundation for the various aspects of this project.

• Understanding the English Learner requires gathering as much information about the child her or his family and community as possible.
  Children's growth and learning occur in the multiple contexts of family, school, and community. These contexts are often not isolated from one another. The influence of these contexts on another is both dynamic and interactive. There is much preschool educators can learn from their observations of children's experiences in the multiple contexts of childhood (Brofenbrenner, 1977; Harrison, Wilson, Pine, Chan, & Buriel, 1990).
• There is an important relationship between language, culture, and learning.
  As children grow older, they become more proficient in the use of language, more culturally knowledgeable, and more competent learners. Language allows children to learn more about their family's culture(s) and the world. At the same time, culture provides children with a lens that influences how they experience the world and how they learn (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003; Vasquez, Pease-Alvarez, & Shannon, 1994).
• Language is a tool for learning.
  Children's language is an essential tool that enables them to learn about the world around them. Language is a tool children use to learn everything, from the cultural practices within the home to the academic content of the classroom (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003).
• There are multiple paths to childhood bilingualism.
  Just as children's everyday experiences may be different from one another, different children may follow different paths to developing more than one language. There is not a single best path to bilingualism. This diversity in achieving bilingualism reflects children's overall development in which different children may develop specific abilities at different times and at different rates (Hakuta, 1986).
• Language development and learning are shaped by children's experiences.
  Children acquire various skills, strategies, and ways of doing things from the people around them as they carry out everyday tasks and activities. Children learn the appropriate use of their language and literacy tools from experts (adults and other competent children) in their various communities.
• Second language acquisition is a complex process.
  Children will take different paths, go through certain stages at different rates, and make use of various strategies in acquiring more than one language.
• Acquiring oral language fluency in English is different from acquiring Academic English, the formal language of the school.
  Children are able to use English within different contexts for different purposes. As a result, children may use different varieties of English within the home, classroom, and playground. Academic English used in formal schooling may take longer to acquire than English used with other children in social circumstances such as on the playground.
• Being able to communicate in more than a single language empowers children in a multicultural society.
  Bilingualism is a valuable skill that allows children to use more than one language to experience the world and to learn about it (Valdés, 2003).