Working with Families to Support Young Dual Language Learners Quality Start Los Angeles

Did you know that in 2016 California repealed Prop 227 which required education only in English? We at QSLA understand that many people reading this post grew up with this educational policy, but recent education policies have changed to reflect a better understanding of the value of the cultural, social-emotional, and educational benefits of bi/multi-lingualism. In fact, in 2018 the California State Superintendent announced the Global CA 2030 initiative, a call to action, urging families, educators, and legislators to support a multilingual California, where students are proficient in more than one language!

As many of you know, QSLA is leading the Dual Language Learner Initiative, with a focus on sharing research highlights and tangible strategies that can help families support their young dual language learners develop their home language and English. Most importantly, we share the belief that a child’s family, their home language, and their culture are strengths they bring to our early learning programs.

This month, our Family Engagement tip focuses on how our early learning programs can support dual language learners (DLL) and their families. We will specifically cover the importance of dual language development, how we can partner with families to support their child’s language development, and key steps our programs and staff can take to support this process.

The Importance of Dual Language Development and Families’ Cultural Identities

While there are many benefits to dual language development, we will focus on a few with a particular emphasis on culture, cognitive development, and long-term success. Before reading on, check out the call out box on the right for key terms to support everyone’s learning.

Cultural Implications

An integral part of a family’s identity is their culture, tied inextricably with their home language. For families, passing on their home language to their child strengthens their child’s connections to their culture, family, and overall identity. As Lourdes C. Rovira, an advocate for educational and linguistic rights of immigrant students, shared in her research in 2008, “Losing one’s language includes losing one’s roots.” When children lose or never learn their home language, they lose the ability to speak and connect directly with grandparents, aunts, cousins, and ultimately lose unbelievably valuable family connection.

What’s more, if a child develops a positive sense of self in relation to their culture and where they come from, they feel a sense of belonging and connection that grounds them in their family and provides a positive sense of identity. This is particularly important for a child managing two or more cultural backgrounds – their family’s roots and the U.S. culture they are growing up in.

Myths and Facts About Bilingualism

Myth: Bilingualism is not valued.

Fact: Bilingualism is valued in schools.

As we alluded to in the beginning of this post, our education system in California now sees bilingualism as a strength! This is seen in various educational policies and programs that have come forward, including these:

CA Master Plan for Early Learning and Care set a goal to provide specialized training for teachers to address DLL development, update material that is culturally and linguistically responsive to DLL and their families and develop identification and assessment for DLLs.
English Learner (EL) Road Map provides guidance to local educational agencies (LEAs) on welcoming, understanding, and educating the diverse population of students who are English learners attending California public schools.
Dual Immersion (DI) programs in California have doubled from 2010 to 2016 from 229 to 407 programs. Dual Immersion programs provide education in more than one language.

Fact: Bilingualism is valued professionally!

Bilingualism is seen as an asset in the workforce.

Worldwide, bilingualism is seen as a strength! As more research comes out on the benefits of bilingualism, its’ value and the number of bilingual individuals is increasing in the United States.
Did you know that in California, the demand for bilingual speakers has doubled from 2010 to 2015? Especially for Spanish and Chinese speakers!
Bilingualism is increasingly valued in the workforce, particularly in healthcare, finance, customer service sectors, and legal services.
Bilingual speakers can obtain a California Bilingual Differential Pay, wherein they earn about $5,400 more annually.

When we support a child’s dual language development, we give them the opportunity to obtain a career with a higher income and more professional opportunities.

Myth: Mixing languages is a deficit.

This perspective is often due to societal views of switching from one language to another and believing that individuals do these when they do not know a language well.

Fact: Mixing languages is a strength.

As it turns out, mixing languages is a strength! Switching from one language to another (also known as code-switching) is common and is both grammatically and communicatively appropriate for our young learners. These young learners are using all the language skills and knowledge they must try and express themselves. When individuals code-switch:

They show a strength in their ability to emphasize thoughts or capture attention.
They show the ability to empathize with others as they choose the ideal terms and language to communicate best with their audience

Explore the video below for an example of code-switching twins! In this video, we hear a set of parents speaking to their twin children, with the mother speaking in English and the father speaking in Spanish.

As for a child’s cognitive development, the bilingual brain is constantly working as it chooses what language to communicate in best. These skills are transferred into other areas. Take a look at the infographic below to explore 6 of the many brain-building benefits of bilingualism.

With time, children will gradually fine tune the differences between languages. What is most important is that young dual language learners receive constant exposure and the opportunity to speak the two+ languages.

Key Steps to Prepare Our Programs & Staff

As we move to create more inclusive environments for dual language learners and their families, our program and staff may need support and further learning to identify and implement best practices for dual language development and cultural inclusion. What can our program and staff do to prepare?

Learn more about dual language learners and their language development process. Ensure your program staff participate in trainings, identify the cultures and languages in your program, and explore resources around cultural inclusion and DLL practices. Consider those provided on our DLL Initiative Professional Development page or our DLL Resources page!
Create a shared vision within your program regarding DLL practices in each classroom and as a whole program. As mentioned previously, consistency is the name of the game when it comes to language exposure and learning. Whether your early learning program is a center-based program serving over 100 children in several groups or a family child care program serving a dozen children, this work is best done when your team is on the same page! Consider these factors:
1. Who needs to have a voice in how your program supports DLLs? Families? Administrators? Educators?
2. Who needs more information to make informed decisions as part of these conversations? What resources or trainings can these individuals receive to have a broader understanding?
3. What roles and responsibilities need to be assigned to ensure consistent effort and follow through for young dual language learners and their families?
Explore what practices and changes your program can implement to better welcome and collaborate with dual language learners and their families, such as these categories below:
1. Environmental Design & Family Visibility:
  1. Create a Family Welcome Board where families can share pictures of their families and/or traditions, with invitations to share more over the course of the year
  2. Select a wide variety of books and stories that reflect the languages and cultures of families served.

Intentional Activity Design:
- Offer read-aloud activities in languages of the families served
- Host family events incorporating different languages and cultural backgrounds.
- Design dramatic play activities exploring a specific tradition or cultural experience of families in your program.
Staff Language Skills:
- Hire and assign staff that also speaks one of the home languages of the families in your early learning program, when possible

Prepare and support staff to use more vocabulary from DLL’s home languages, whether or not they are native speakers. (include these terms on labels around the classroom, in songs, in greetings, etc.)

For more information regarding these key strategies, check out our page on Professional Development as part of the Dual Language Learner Initiative for trainings and resources.

How Can We Partner with Families to Support Their Dual Language Learner?

Now that we have covered several of the primary benefits to bilingualism, we can dig into how we can work with families in support of their child’s dual language development.

Get to know the families in your early learning program! Learn about their home language usage and what is important to them regarding language and culture. Look at the Personalized Oral Language Learning (POLL) Resource, “Family Languages and Interests,” interview tool, a quick 2-page form to support your connection with families.
Demystify myths & share facts about bilingualism with families. Your program can share the facts and educational policies created above as well as this document from the Foundation for Child Development on “PreK-3rd Grade: Challenging Common Myths About Dual Language Learners.”
Share ideas and encourage families to maintain their home language! Need more information? Check out our Dual Language Learner Resource page!
Empower families by sharing research and strategies on language development. Being informed about what options and resources are available to them is a powerful step towards families feeling empowered to make their own family and language goals. More information can be found at:
- Our DLL Initiative Resources page
Invite families to partner with staff to welcome and value children’s culture and identity!Explore what intentional strategies or activities work for your program and the families you work with, such as those shared in this photo slideshow below. For more ideas, check out the Resources for Early Educators tab of our DLL Initiative Resource page!
- Label parts of the classroom,
- Translate songs,
- Teach songs in their language,
- Share books,
- Bring cultural items for play areas,

Bring cultural foods in for snack and meal times

As we continue embarking on this journey of supporting dual language learners and their families in our programs, let’s remember two key points underlying these efforts of ours:

Families matter and their voices are important!

Their home language and cultural identities are valuable and strengthen everyone’s experience.

When we base our interactions in these ideas, our family engagement work shines through in a way that honors the best in them and the best in ourselves.

Dual Language Learner Initiative – Professional Development Page

Dual Language Learner Initiative – Resources Page (for Early Educators AND Families!)

Dual Language Learner Initiative – Resources Page (for Early Educators AND Families!

Resources to share with families:

Resources for early learning programs:

References

Agirdag, O. (2015). The literal cost of language assimilation. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA, 2015), Chicago. also cited by https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/new-research-examines-economic-benefits-bilingualism/
Anderson, J. A., Hawrylewicz, K., & Grundy, J. G. (2020). Does bilingualism protect against dementia? A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27, 952-965.
Ball, J. (2011). UNESCO. Mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education in the early years: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000212270&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_b27c95bf-f409-4651-b960-8724a78c0d3f%3F_%3D212270eng.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000212270/PDF/212270eng.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A201%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D
Dewaele, J. M., & Wei, L. (2012). Multilingualism, empathy and multicompetence. International Journal of Multilingualism, 9(4), 352-366. Switch their focus of attention, reason about others’ mental states, and reflect on the structure of language itself.
Fan, S. P., Liberman, Z., Keysar, B., & Kinzler, K. D. (2015). The exposure advantage: Early exposure to a multilingual environment promotes effective communication. Psychological science, 26(7), 1090-1097.
Gándara, P. (2018). The economic value of bilingualism in the United States. Bilingual Research Journal, 41(4), 334-343.
Gumperz, J.J. & Cook-Gumperz, J. (2005). Making space for bilingual communicative practice. Intercultural Pragmatics, 2(1), 1–23.
Heller, M. (2020). Code-switching and the politics of language. In The bilingualism reader (pp. 163-176). Routledge.
Lee, J. S., and D. Suarez. (2009). A Synthesis of the Roles of Heritage Languages in the Lives of Immigrant Children. In The Education of Language Minority Immigrants in the United States, edited by T. G. Wiley, J. S. Lee, and R. W. Rumberger, 136–171. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive psychology, 41(1), 49-100.
Porras, D., Ee, J., & Gándara, P. (2014). Employer preferences: Do bilingual applicants and employees experience an advantage? In R. Callahan & P. Gándara (Eds.), The bilingual advantage language, literacy and the US labor market (pp. 234-257). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Rovira, L. C. (2008). The relationship between language and identity. The use of the home language as a human right of the immigrant. REMHU-Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana, 16(31), 63-81. – pg. 66
Salmona Madriñan, M. (2014). The Use of First Language in the Second-Language Classroom: A Support for Second Language Acquisition. Gist Education and learning research journal, 9, 50-66.
Shin, S. J. (2017). Bilingualism in schools and society: Language, identity, and policy. Routledge
Tseng, V., and Fuligni, A.J. (2000). Parent-adolescent language use and relationships among immigrant families with East Asian, Filipino, and Latin American backgrounds. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62(2), 465-476.
Wong-Fillmore, L. (2000). Loss of family languages: Should educators be concerned? Theory into Practice, 39(4), 203-210.

Cristina Espinoza
Family Education Coordinator, Quality Start Los Angeles

Cristina Espinoza has worked as a family and youth development professional for 7 years, including having served as a Peace Corps Volunteer as a youth development promoter in Costa Rica. In conjunction with Quality Start Los Angeles, Cristina is passionate about supporting families to feel empowered in the changing landscape of their surroundings with their children’s wellbeing at the forefront. She is a champion of strengths-based systems and services that build resilient families and youth.