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I plan to begin the paper with some stats regarding DLL students in the US as well as the current policies and guidelines by state. Then, I will dive in to the various suggestions on how to support and teach the DLL students by incorporating their language in centers and lessons. I will then touch upon teaching DLL students who have special needs/disabilities.

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This site gives statistics and research based information regarding the importance of bilingualism in the US and also how pre-school DLL's benefit from their native language.
Dual-Language programs are also explained.

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This site lists several federal laws in place regarding DLL education.

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Policies regarding servicing DLL students by state

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This site discusses better ways to do assessments on DLL students and how to help educators with the assessments.

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Building Better Pre-K Assessments to Support Dual Language Learners and their Educators

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MDRC’s recently launched Measures for Early Success initiative is beginning the work to make assessments more culturally and linguistically responsive, particularly for DLLs.

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This site gives tips and strategies on how to support the DLL students in the classroom at different times of the day and in different centers. (Using multilingual vocabulary signs).

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Young children who speak another language are still trying to learn that language when they enter preschool, which means learning English in addition to their home language can by difficult and frustrating for children and their families. Teachers report that this has become increasingly common as the United States' population grows more diverse. This presents a challenge for many educators because the training they received didn't cover how to support children who are learning more than one language.

In Many Languages, One Classroom, author Karen Nemeth defines dual language learners as "a phrase that describes children who are growing up with some degree of bilingualism" and clarifies that it does not imply a particular teaching approach. Nemeth also discusses how it's helpful to think of educational practices for dual language learners (also known as DLLs) as a continuum. "Services for linguistically diverse preschool children can best be described by where they fit along a continuum from fully bilingual with emphasis on the non-English language to fully English with few supports for the home language."

Wherever your school, center, or classroom falls on the continuum, you still need tips and strategies to effectively teach and support DLLs in the preschool classroom. Here are a few areas you should focus on accompanied with tips on how to make the classroom environment welcoming for all children:

Welcome Time - The time when children and parents arrive at the start of the day is important, because the tone of the day can be set by how welcome and comfortable they feel. Make sure you post multilingual welcome and direction signs outside the building, at building entrances, and inside the building. Also try to welcome each child with a greeting from their home language if possible.

Dramatic Play Area - Adding authentic clothing and accessories from different countries and cultures can help children with diverse backgrounds want to participate more in this area. Try to incorporate empty food containers from different ethnic food stores in the play area. Offering a variety of utensils and appliances, such as chopsticks and tortilla makers, is another great way to support DLLs. Maps, brochures, menus, and newspapers in other languages can also help children with different language backgrounds participate in dramatic play.

Outdoor Play Area - Adding authentic items to the outdoor play area can help children learn to recognize the meanings and functions of signs and other items. It's also a good idea to create a vocabulary guide of safety words to post outside to help teachers communicate with DLLs. Outdoor toys that are popular in the other cultures should also be available. Soccer balls, for example, are popular in Mexico and European countries, so children who speak languages from those areas will often feel more comfortable if they can play with familiar toys.

Library and Reading Area - Make sure that books are available in the languages the children in your care speak. Public libraries and children's librarians are also great resources for you to use when trying to figure out what books you should include. Placing props, such as puppets, in the reading area is another way to help children enjoy and understand the stories they are reading.

Manipulatives Area - One way you can support DLLs in this area is by labeling containers with pictures and descriptions in their home languages. Signs or placemats that show children how to use the available manipulatives are also beneficial to DLLs in preschool.

Writing Area - Offer a variety of writing utensils and papers in different textures, colors, and sizes to help encourage children to have fun and enjoy writing. Showcase posters and models of the different kinds of writing the children in your care may see at home and in school or recognize from their culture. All of these strategies can be used to capitalize on and increase a DLL's interest in writing.

Science Area - Support DLLs in this area of the classroom by labeling science items in children's home languages. Including pictures of each item and demonstrating how to use them will also help DLLs understand how they should participate. You can also ask families to send science items from home. Children will more comfortable using items that come from their own home.

Block Area - Several sets of blocks should be offered in this area. Incorporate architectural blocks to represent a variety of cultures and to support DLLs. Including pictures of a variety of structures in your block center is another way you can encourage DLL's to participate. Block accessories and props that represent other cultures are also a great addition to this area.

Mealtime - Mealtime can be especially frustrating for DLLs. They may not know how to communicate with others or simply don't recognize the types of food available. You can support DLLs at mealtime by writing the menu in English and other relevant home languages of the children in your class. Placemats with mealtime words and pictures in English and other languages are also a great addition to this area.

For more information about dual language learners and additional tips on how to support them in the preschool classroom, read Karen Nemeth's Many Languages, One Classroom. We also offer a variety of bilingual/Spanish materials and books that would be helpful for you to include in the classroom.

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Supporting DLLs in Preschool | Kaplan Early Learning Company

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Young children who speak another language are still trying to learn that language when they enter preschool, which means learning English in addition to their home language can by difficult and frustrating for children and their families. Teachers report that this has become increasingly common as the United States' population grows more diverse.

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Ways to culturally support the students through dramatic play and other play centers in the classroom

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It's circle time on a Monday morning in a South Texas Head Start classroom. The children have noticed that la paleteria (food stand selling frozen fruit popsicles and ice creams), the most recent dramatic play center theme, has been taken down and put away, and they are wondering what kind of center should replace it.

Mrs. Ramos invites them to talk about their weekend activities. Rodrigo says he and his grandmother went to the panaderia (bakery). Two children ask, "What is that?" Juanita explains, "That's a bakery where you buy bread and cake." Mrs. Ramos says she and her mother used to go to the panaderia when she was a child. The children smile.

The conversation turns to pan dulce (sweet bread). Some children say they buy it at the local grocery store or corner store. Others say their families buy it at their nearby panaderia. Mrs. Ramos says that could be the theme of the new dramatic play center. The children enthusiastically begin naming baked goods that their panaderia will sell, and Mrs. Ramos writes their suggestions down.

Culturally responsive centers

To identify culturally relevant themes, listen to children's everyday talk. In Mrs. Ramos's classroom, the children's conversations about their family activities led them to create a panaderia in the dramatic play center. Culturally relevant dramatic play centers let young children draw from their experiences to enhance their play. Children reenact activities and observations from family life and share common events in their cultures. Authentic dramatic play leads to children's meaningful learning-especially in language and vocabulary.

Here are some ideas for planning language-rich environments that help dual language learners (in this case, emergent Spanish/English bilinguals) develop communication skills. When you intentionally create interesting experiences for children, their play becomes deeper and more interactive.

Spark conversations through verbal mapping

To expose children to new vocabulary, practice verbal mapping -that is, describe to children what they are doing (or what you are doing) to introduce new words in a meaningful context. Remember to use new vocabulary words in conversations over and over again, because children need to hear and practice unfamiliar words many times to truly understand them. Teachers describe actions and objects that are important to children while in a familiar and meaningful setting. The setting for the classroom might be a bodega, a paleteria, or a panaderia.

Jorge explains that in his neighborhood bakery, you use pinzas para pan, or tongs, to pick up bread. Mrs. Ramos sees this as an opportunity to reinforce the word tongs. She hands two wooden blocks to Jorge and says, "Good morning, sir. I'm delivering the two tongs the manager ordered for the bakery." Although tongs is a new word for the children, they immediately integrate it into their speech and play. The cashier tells the next customer, "Please give me your tray so I can ring up your bread. Leave the tongs over there." Teachers also engage in verbal mapping when they talk about the types of bread customers buy. Without disrupting play, Mrs. Ramos asks questions, supplies vocabulary, and extends the conversation to support children's language development.

Provide new props to extend children's play

Props can be added in phases to build on children's knowledge and hold their interest. Here's how Mrs. Ramos set up the panaderia.

Provide basic bakery props. Offer-or invite families to contribute-common objects and tools, such as photos/pictures of familiar breads, aprons, spice and extract bottles, plastic mixing bowls, wooden spoons, rolling pins, and other kitchen products or tools.

Add more props based on careful observation of children's interactions. After Mrs. Ramos observed children talking about delivering cakes for weddings and quinceañeras (girls' 15th birthday celebrations), she introduced a calendar. The children marked the dates when cakes had to be delivered to or picked up by customers. Other items provided included cookie cutters and a receipt booklet.

Add props that enhance the theme. Mrs. Ramos placed a pretend fire extinguisher in the bakery. This extended children's imaginations (and vocabulary) as they role-played burning bread and putting out a fire in the oven. She also supplied objects like a bakery timer, cake photo album, and pictures of celebrations.

Try placing new props in the center for children to discover first, then explain how to use them. Or teachers might introduce the new props through role-playing, as Mrs. Ramos did with the tongs.

This dramatic play center reflected the Spanish-speaking children in the class. But classes have all sorts of cultural mixes. Regularly assess the materials and props in the dramatic play center to make sure they accurately reflect all of the children and families in your class and accommodate the children with disabilities. Add props that encourage children to talk to each other and to their teacher. When the excitement over a certain dramatic play center fades, offer new props or change the theme.

Make it a print-rich setting

Create a welcoming print-rich dramatic play center. Add functional labels, pictures, books, and other materials reflective of children's cultures, such as familiar recipes, photos of cultural sweet breads, and spice or extract bottles (for example, vanilla, cinnamon, or piloncillo-unrefined brown sugar). Mrs. Ramos labeled the panaderia shelves with the names of different breads and other baked goods that children had heard their families talk about, such as empanadas, conchas, and orejas. Now, they could see how those words were spelled. This encouraged them to write the words as they were ordering or selling sweet bread or creating new bread recipes.

An interesting space encourages children to stay engaged. Children notice the print and learn that it symbolizes language. Using the props, they learn the everyday functions of writing and literacy. When Mrs. Ramos placed an Open/Abierto sign on the panaderia counter, some children said, "Ya esta abierta la panaderia!" ("The bakery is open!").

Place useful labels so that children can touch them-even copy and trace them-and help organize the materials. Mrs. Ramos made labels in Spanish and English for the names and prices of specific baked goods. The "Open/Abierto" sign and the different labels helped children organize their thought process as they created sequenced role-playing episodes. The labels also worked as resources to scaffold the children's language and help with reading.

Conclusion

Children's language development is enhanced by intentional support from teachers, interaction with peers, and opportunities to practice their new communication skills. We hope our examples inspire you to create dramatic play centers that reflect your children's communities, cultures, and experiences outside of school. Center themes encourage children to play together and talk about what is personally meaningful to them. They can have fun using new words in a safe, comfortable setting.

Prop Suggestions for the Panaderia

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Supporting Language: Culturally Rich Dramatic Play

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In Mrs. Ramos's classroom, the children's conversations about their family activities led them to create a panaderia in the dramatic play center.

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Various ways on how to welcome DLL students into the preschool classroom.

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It's important for teachers to create a welcoming environment for children and families from all cultures and who speak different languages. Here are a few quick tips.

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This site gives several strategies for teachers to use during group instructions(small and whole) and ways to incorporate DL vocabulary during teaching.

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As schools and programs begin to return after the summer break, how can early educators make sure they're creating a space that welcomes and supports the learning and development of young dual language learners (DLLs)? In this month's article, you'll get 10 tips on how you can prepare your classroom and curriculum to support young DLLs and help them succeed.

Early childhood learning environments are where young children begin to develop foundational school readiness skills-including language, early literacy, mathematics, executive functioning, and social-emotional skills-that will be essential for academic and social success in the elementary grades and beyond. The following strategies, excerpted and adapted from Teaching Dual Language Learners by Lisa López, Ph.D. & Mariela Páez, Ed.D., will help you teach these critical skills to all kids in a culturally and linguistically diverse classroom.

Matching DLLs with a teacher of the same ethnicity and/or cultural background is the easiest way to introduce skills in their home language, but the reality of today's increasingly diverse classrooms means it's often not possible to have a teacher who speaks the same home language as all of their dual language learners. The good news is that monolingual teachers can still promote language development in their linguistically diverse students by learning key words in the child's home language and making an effort to educate themselves on the child's language and culture.

Design play-based projects that focus on language interactions.
Play-based activities-especially in the context of themed projects built around children's interests-are an ideal way to engage DLL children and help them reach developmental and early academic goals. Here's an example inspired by a recent study: develop a play-based unit on superheroes in your diverse classroom, and make it an opportunity to learn about language and social-emotional skills, too. Start by reading a poem and a book about superpowers, with the goal of introducing the concepts of pretend abilities (superpowers) and real-life abilities. Extend the definition of "superpowers" to include real-life prosocial actions, such as helping others, showing kindness, using your words, and sharing. Then plan superhero-themed activities involving small-group interactions (a storyboard with action heroes), one-on-one projects (individual portraits of children's superpowers and qualities), and sociodramatic play (setting up an area with costumes).

During a themed unit like this one, use the following strategies to meet the needs of dual language learners:

Use explicit vocabulary instruction to help DLL children learn new words

Support children's language learning by using repetition and modeling of new words

Supplement spoken words with gestures, visual aids, and props

Interact with children in a purposeful, consistent, and firm way to support children's positive behaviors

During choice time and sociodramatic play, encourage the kind of sustained back-and-forth conversations that build language skills

Pair DLL children with peers who speak English as a first language to reinforce development of skills in English during activities

Limit the amount of time spent in whole group. In a study of preschool classrooms serving DLLs, López and colleagues (2017) found that the children were spending about one third of their morning in whole-group time. Try to reduce the time you spend as a large group, and think about which activities can be reimagined, shortened, or done in smaller groups instead.

Pair DLL children with a buddy and do "turn and talk" activities. Have children share with a buddy instead of the entire group, pairing DLL students with another child who speaks their home language whenever possible. Letting DLLs participate by using the language they're most comfortable speaking (regardless of activity) will increase their self-confidence and help lay the groundwork for successful language acquisition.

Encourage prereading of books. Prereading books with a DLL child in their home language makes it easier for them to follow along with the story and learn new vocabulary words.

Make the most of small-group and one-to-one activities.
Both small-group time and one-to-one activities make it easier to address the specific needs of individual DLL children. If one of the teachers speaks the home language of the children, small-group activities provide a good opportunity to preread a book in the home language, preteach thematic content before it's introduced to the whole class, and focus on building literacy skills in the home language that children will be able to transfer once they have sufficient vocabulary in English.

For DLL learners who may need extra help, one-to-one activities are also valuable and can be used to scaffold language during play, teach math skills, or boost language skills using developmentally appropriate technology tools in the child's home language. Teachers are strongly encouraged to learn some key words in a DLL child's home language, but technology tools can be a great way for DLLs to continue expanding their first language skills when their teacher does not speak their home language.

To support metalinguistic skills, talk about the similarities and differences between languages spoken in your classroom. Try the following strategies:

Read books in different languages and highlight the unique features of each language

Sing songs and read poems that expose children to the sounds of multiple languages

Introduce vocabulary words in multiple languages, especially words that children know from their home languages

Listen to children and adults narrating stories that show aspects of different cultures

Build background knowledge.
One of the key elements in reading comprehension is background knowledge, an understanding of basic concepts that can also be culturally specific. You can help broaden the background knowledge of DLLs-and all young children-by introducing them to different cultural traditions. Build background knowledge into your early childhood learning environment by going on both virtual and real field trips, taking nature walks, inviting classroom guests to do show-and-tell presentations, and transforming classroom centers based on whatever subject you're currently covering (e.g., pet store, pet groomers, pet obedience school, pet day care, veterinarian). These experiences will help invest DLL children with the contextual knowledge to comprehend English narratives presented orally and in print.

Keep in mind that DLLs need to be presented with new vocabulary words in context and provided with ongoing opportunities to practice these new words. Try introducing new vocabulary words in small groups with accompanying pictures or concrete examples, giving DLL children a chance to think about words in their home language and make connections between what they know and the new information being presented. Once new words have been introduced, read books that include the words during small or whole group time, and create opportunities for DLLs to practice the words during center time.

Use scaffolds during book reading.
All young children benefit from scaffolds during book reading, but DLL children are especially well-served when teachers point with a finger to certain words, ask questions, and run a finger along the text. For example, if you were doing a read-aloud of the book The Dot (Reynolds, 2003), you could begin by showing the children the cover of the book and ask them the following questions: Who is the author of the book? Is there an illustrator for the book? What is the title of the book? Where should we start reading? After talking about some of the children's ideas, start reading the book and draw connections between the content of the book and your previous discussion. Afterwards, meet with DLLs for further discussion and a dot-drawing activity. Let your DLL students hold the book and point to different sections as they engage in the activity. This sort of small-group interaction gives teachers the opportunity to assess DLL children's understanding of the book and provide scaffolds accordingly.

Using home languages in whole-group conversations to make DLL children feel comfortable and competent

Enriching whole-group experiences by using the home language and asking students to share in their home language

Switching from one language to the other (if you know the child's home language) as a scaffolding strategy when working one-to-one or in small groups

Designing specific activities that include teaching in the home language

Incorporating songs and rhymes in the children's home languages (families or caregivers can serve as great resources for providing examples of songs that promote sound and rhyme awareness)

Because there are more linguistically diverse learners than ever before in early childhood settings, educators need to prioritize the teaching and engagement of children whose home language differs from that of the rest of the class. Use the practical strategies in this article to boost language and other key skills for DLL children and help pave the way toward a successful future.

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10 Tips for Teaching Young Dual Language Learners Effectively | Brookes Publishing Co.

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As schools and programs begin to return after the summer break, how can early educators make sure they're creating a space that welcomes and supports the learning and development of young dual language learners (DLLs)? In this month's article, you'll get 10 tips on how you can prepare your classroom and curriculum to support young DLLs and help them succeed.

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Strategies for helping DLL students in mathematics.

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The language of mathematics is most likely new for all children in a preschool classroom, regardless of whether the language of instruction is in their native language. Native speakers are learning the counting words, words for shapes, measurement, and spatial relations along with DLLs.

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Chapter 7 of this book talks about how to teach/support DLL students with special needs and learning disabilities.