Initiating conversations and responding to initiations of others via gestural and verbal means are prerequisites for participating in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) interactions. However, research to date has not addressed the multimodal initiations and responses of young second language learners (SLLs) in natural ECEC settings. This…

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the discriminant validity of the Persian version of Alberta Language Development Questionnaire (ALDeQ) in Turkish-Persian bilingual children, aged 75 months with 19 months of exposure to Persian, on average. The study sample included the parents of 22 bilingual children with language…

This study investigates the physical literacy environment of preschools in three Nordic countries. The environments were assessed using an observation protocol in a total of 131 classrooms with children aged between one and seven in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The results showed that children's books were common and accessible in all three…

This study aims to investigate narrative competence of bilingual children from low socio-economic status (SES) before and after they were involved in fourteen weeks of Turkish storytelling activities. Fifteen bilingual children from low-SES backgrounds participated in this research. Bilingual children first produced narratives using Mercer Mayer's…

This article reports on the influence of communication skills on rural students' resilience and well-being. Purposive sampling was used to retrospectively select 40 (f: n = 20; m: n = 20) Grade 9 students in a rural school that were involved in a larger youth project that aimed to deliver pathways towards resilience in rural schools through…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate how preschool teachers see their interaction with the home. The empirical material consists of semi-structured interviews with 30 qualified preschool teachers working in Swedish preschools. The informants describe how they promote cooperation and prevent conflict by clarifying that parents'…

A lack of adequate German language skills is often discussed as a major reason for the disadvantage of children of immigrants in the German educational system. This article analyses the access to formal and informal early education of Turkish-origin children in Germany and the influence of these early education contexts on the children's German…

In Mauritius, Kreol is the home language of the majority of school children, while English is the main language of literacy and the main written medium of instruction as from the first year of primary schooling. This has had a backwash effect on the preschool sector, where English is introduced. A cross-sectional study of local preschools revealed…

There is little consensus among different early childhood education stakeholders in Hong Kong on whether it is beneficial or detrimental for children to receive an English bilingual education before the age of 6. This longitudinal study investigated the issue of potential "detrimental effects of learning English" on Hong Kong…

This research focused on learning conditions in preschool that support multilingual children's linguistic development. The aim of this paper was to study singing activities through the experiences of ten multilingual children in toddler groups (one to three years of age) in eight Swedish preschools. A sociocultural theoretical approach is used to…

Mauritian children are Kreol speakers who learn to read and write in English and French when they join the primary education system. The government-mandated preschool curriculum mentions the need for the preschool to prepare them for the literacy challenges of the primary school. The aim of this paper is to consider whether preschool children…

While the extant literature has highlighted the important contribution of home literacy experiences to early literacy development, limited research has been carried out among children living in postcolonial contexts, where there is a mismatch between the home and school language. Such is the case of Mauritius. The present exploratory case study…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate how children aged 4-6 perceive and are motivated by foreign language learning in kindergarten. The central part of the paper focuses on the tendencies and guidelines for the teaching and learning of foreign languages at the pre-school level and on children's motivation for foreign language…

A challenge of today's teacher preparation programmes is to educate teachers about families formed through international adoption and of the challenges they face, in order to meet their educational needs. This population has a unique developmental history affected by pre- and post-adoption conditions which stand to impact on learning experiences…

The purpose of this article is to describe the New Zealand experience of second language acquisition as it applies to learning the Maori language and also to new immigrants learning English. The article describes the te kohanga reo movement and also outlines the government policy as it relates to the learning of English as an additional language…