NEW ZEALAND EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES IN SUPPORTING ENGLISH ACQUISITION FOR ASIAN IMMIGRANT ENGLISH

LANGUAGE LEARNERS (ELLS): A PILOT PROJECT

M Che Mustafa1 and J.Duncan2

1School of Educational Studies and Leadership, University of Canterbury, New Zealand2 School of Educational Studies and Leadership, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Email: 1mazlina.chemustafa@pg.canterbury.ac.nz, 2judith.duncan@canterbury.ac.nz

ABSTRACTThere has been an increasing enrolment of Asian immigrant English language learners (ELLs)

in New Zealand early childhood centres (ECE) due to large rises in immigration families from

non-English speaking countries and an increase in children born to bilingual parents in New

Zealand. This phenomenological case study explores the beliefs and practices of New Zealand

early childhood teachers in supporting English acquisition for Asian immigrant English

language learners (ELLs). The focus of the study is on analysing early childhood teachers’

beliefs on how they can support English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs and

discovering how these beliefs influence their practice in early childhood education setting

from sociocultural perspectives. The theoretical framework of this research draws on a range

of perspectives, including (i) the sociocultural positions initially framed by Lev Vygostky

(1978), (ii) the notion of cultural participation and transformation as argued by Barbara

Rogoff and (iii) theories of second language acquisition discussed by Baker (2006) and

Krashen (1988). Research methods involved were semi-structured interviews and

observations. The findings were analysed using thematic analysis and presented three themes:

Teachers’ beliefs and practices; relationships and identities. These themes impacted the

learning experiences for the Asian immigrant ELLs and other children attending the ECE.

This study will provide a basis from which to consider how early childhood teachers in New

Zealand could support English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs, while valuing and

supporting children’s cultural background.

KEYWORDS

English language learners, early childhood education, English acquisition, teachers’ beliefs and practices

01548117916 7018CONTEXTIncreasing numbers of young children, who speak home languages other than English, are

attending ECE centres in New Zealand (Ministry of Education, 2007). Statistically 12.6 % of

Asian children were enrolled in public kindergartens, while 24.6% were enrolled in other

child care centres (New Zealand Childcare Survey, 2010). Thirteen thousand hundred and

eighty one (13,181) of Asian children were enrolled in licensed early childhood services and

ranked third in terms of number of children enrolled after European/Pakeha (119,170) and

Māori (38,580).

Despite the increase of Asian immigrant children in early childhood education (ECE)

centres, studies on how they are supported by teachers with regard to English acquisition are

not extensive. Whilst there are empirical studies in bilingual education in early childhood

education and development (Haworth, Cullen, Simmons, Schimanski, McGarva &

Woodhead, 2006; Podmore & Samu, 2006) the numbers of studies which explore early

childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices with regard to specifically supporting English

acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs are limited. Podmore and Samu (2006) investigated

strategies to promote Samoan language and culture so as to nurture positive identity of the

children. These studies (Haworth, Cullen, Simmons elt., 2006; Podmore & Samu, 2006) are

particularly concerned that young children are highly susceptible to losing their first language

if the first language is not strongly maintained during early childhood years. These same

studies focused on mainstream populations in New Zealand such as Māori and Samoan,

making the study of supporting English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs very

limited in number and scope.

RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVESThe aim of this study was to explore the beliefs and practices of New Zealand early childhood

teachers in supporting English acquisition for Asian immigrant English language learners

(ELLs) by using socio-cultural approaches. The focus of the study was on analysing early

childhood teachers’ beliefs on how they can support English acquisition among Asian

immigrant ELLs and discovering how these beliefs influence their practice in early childhood

education setting.

The study, and especially the data gathering process, was guided by the following

questions:

1. What do New Zealand early childhood teachers state as their beliefs about supporting

English acquisition among Asian immigrant English language learners (ELLs)?

2. Do New Zealand early childhood teachers vary in their beliefs about supporting English

acquisition among Asian immigrant English language learners (ELLs)? If so, how?

3. How do New Zealand early childhood teachers perceive that they support English

acquisition among Asian immigrant English language learners (ELLs)?

4. How can New Zealand early childhood teachers support English acquisition among Asian

immigrant English language learners (ELLs) by using sociocultural approaches?

The research questions shaping this study are derived from:

What are early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices in supporting English acquisition for

Asian immigrant English language learners?

 

RESEARCH DESIGNThe framework for this study has been a sociocultural and phenomenological case study. Two

major methods of data gathering were used for each case study to obtain rich and detailed

information about teachers’ beliefs and practices to support English acquisition among Asian

immigrant ELLs. The primary method of data gathering was the phenomenological three

interview series (Siedman, 2006) to illuminate early childhood teachers’ experience in

supporting English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLs. I conducted a series of three

interviews. In the first interview, my task is to place the participants’ experience in context by

asking them to tell as much as possible about their experiences them in light of the topic up to

the present time. The purpose of the second interview was to concentrate on the participants’

present lived experience in the topic area of the study. In the third interview, I asked the

participants to reflect on the meaning of their experiences and highlighted salient scenarios

during my observations. Each interview took approximately between 20 to 45 minutes and

spaced from three days to a week apart.

Another method was field notes encompassing direct observations of early childhood

teachers’ practices in each ECE centre alongside my reflective notes containing insights,

understanding, questions and thoughts generated during data gathering process. I recorded

social interactions between each case study teacher and case study children as well as social

interactions between case study children and other children who attended the centre.

Observations were recorded by using pen and paper, digital camera and camera video

recorder to document salient scenarios on the basis of clear illustrations of teachers’

behaviour, language or social relationships with Asian immigrant ELLs. The use of this

equipment was negotiated with the early childhood teachers, children and the children’s

parents.

For individual case study analysis, three steps were involved which were in line with

phenomenological analysis. The first step was to review the transcripts and field notes to get a

sense of early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices in supporting English acquisition

among Asian immigrant ELLS. I read and reread the field notes, listened to the audio

recordings of interviews with teachers and watched the videotapes a few times to gain

sensitivity to the entire data. My reflective notes were not analysed and part of case

description but they assisted me to analyse the data and reminded me how and why I

understood something when it happened during my fieldwork.

The second step of the data analysis was to scrutinise the data to develop preliminary

codes for clustering around topics. It involved extracting the notes and transcripts that directly

pertained to understanding early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices in supporting

English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLS and putting aside data which were not

relevant to the research phenomena. Although certain codes were developed during

preliminary stage, coding topics was not a static process in my data analysis as later thoughts

of including other items were also part of the data development analysis.

The final stage of the data analysis was to discover meaning units. This was achieved

through close examination of the data and studying the preliminary codes many times to see

whether some of them illustrated a similar point. From the initial codes, I identified keywords,

phrases and sentences that indicated the early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices in

supporting English acquisition among Asian immigrant ELLS in similar ways and group them

together. As I read and listened, I searched for patterns and meanings among all the initial

codes. I looked across the transcripts and notes to reorganise the segmented codes to establish

links with my research questions. This resulted in clustering themes which allowed for close

interaction with the transcript (Smith & Osborn, 2008) that best described the responses.

FINDINGS Thematic analysis involved expanding the themes into narratives based on information the

participants have shared. The outcome of this thematic analysis led towards further broader

themes and in turn, to the main findings of this study. The thematic analysis was described in

relation to the research questions (1) teachers’ beliefs and practices, and (2) relationships and

(3) identities.

Teachers’ beliefs and practicesThe teachers’ beliefs and practices highlighted the issue between promoting English

acquisition and supporting home language. The teachers in this study believed that the Asian

immigrant ELLs should be supported to use their home language in the ECE centre and these

children will naturally acquire English as they grow older because the English-speaking

environment will help them to acquire English. Despite articulating this view, the teachers

were observed to provide opportunities for English acquisition through interactions with the

Asian immigrant ELLs. These interactions were described by the teachers as important in

order to engage Asian immigrant ELLs in teacher-led activities and build good relationships.

There were times during my observation; I noticed the teachers were having difficulty in

interacting with the Asian immigrant case study ELLs as they were speaking in their own

languages. There was a sense of disappointment by the teachers for not being able to engage

in the activities involving some Asian immigrant ELLs particularly when they interact in their

own language and when they were playing nearby the teachers. Nevertheless, Anna and Carol

(not real names) used various strategies to interact with the children such as body language

and repetitions.

RelationshipsAnna emphasised the importance to strengthen the relationship between the teachers and the

parents of Asian immigrant ELLs despite the language barrier and cultural differences. As

noted from Anna’s statement, the teachers needed to find out more about Asian cultural

practices, particularly with regards to their children’s learning in order to understand what

were important for these families. Carol highlighted that some of Asian immigrant ELLs’

parents were also making efforts to share information about their culture with the teachers and

children at the ECE centre. She quoted a few examples of their efforts such as a

demonstration of making sushi and “ang pow” (money given to children during Chinese New

Year). This was evident in the photographs taken in the learning folios of the Asian immigrant

case study ELLs.

Relationships with Asian immigrant ELLs were also viewed important by Anna. When

the teachers have good relationship with these children, they would feel comfortable being

themselves. As pointed by Anna, one of the ways to build a good relationship with these

children is to have a sense of empathy, especially during interaction. She felt empathy as most

Asian immigrant ELLs, especially those who were never enrolled in ECE centre, entered a

new environment where they encountered a set of language and cultural practices that may be

different from the practices they were used to. When the Asian immigrant case study ELLs

had difficulty in communicating with her, she was observed to be very patient in

understanding the message that the children were trying to get across. She recognised the

struggle to be understood as she had been in a situation where English was not a main

language spoken when she travelled overseas before. Carol stated that sometimes

relationships with these children became stronger when she gave particular attention to a

small group of children or an individual. Apparently, during my observation most Asian

immigrant ELLs were more comfortable to have one-to one attention by the teachers. When

they were in a mixed and bigger group, for example, during mat time; most Asian immigrant

ELLs appeared to be very quiet and did not respond much to their teachers. The empathy and

attention given to Asian immigrant ELLs may help to build good relationship between the

teachers and the children.

Identity“Identity formation is a complex process that is never complete” (Siraj-Blatchford & Clarke,

2000). The complexities of identity for some Asian immigrant ELLs were highlighted by one

of the teachers. Anna pointed that cultural and language identities were important for most

Asian immigrants ELLs and they should feel comfortable using their home language and

proud of their cultural heritage but the children were observed having to take longer time and

making extra effort to build friendship with their friends of other ethnicities in the centre due

to their linguistic constraint. She tried to involve Asian immigrant ELLs in social games

where they didn’t have to rely on English to play the games. Clara described that despite these

complexities, as long as there was a strong sense of belonging where their culture is valued

and visible and teachers being interested in building the relationship with Asian immigrant

ELLS, it would help the children to have a positive self-identity as they acquire English.

As observed during the study, Asian immigrant case-study ELLs sometimes needed to

feel proud of their heritage and language but it might affect their efforts in making friends

with English-speaking background in the centre. For example, Yang was fond of one of his

martial arts’ heritage, “kung fu”. Most of the times, he played “kung fu” with two other

friends who had the same background as his. Other children who wanted to play with him

found it hard to play along as they either found it not interesting or intimidating due to the

physical movement. This might give Yang the idea that some of his friends in the ECE centre

may not like his heritage martial arts. This was evident when I asked Yang whether some of

his friends (from different ethnicities) like his “kung fu”. I also noticed that some children

were behaving as if they were uncomfortable when Yang interacted with them in his mother

tongue. As English is a major tool for interaction with majority of the children, Yang seemed

to find it challenging to engage in a conversation with his English-speaking friends in some

situations due to his limited proficiency in English. At times, although Yang did not cut

himself entirely from English acquisition situations he found ways of avoiding learning much

of English being used around him. In situations in which he could play with his friends who

spoke the same language, he continued to associate with them, forming social groups on that

basis.

MY REFELECTION

This study has given opportunities to reflect on as a researcher. I hope to use these reflections

to improve my data gathering in my main study. The followings are issues that I need to

tackle before embarking my main data gathering:

The Voice of ParentsTe Whariki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, advocates the partnership between

early childhood centres and parents. Although, there was a plan in the beginning of my field

work to interview the parents, I did not pursue it because I found that the parents of the case

study children were busy with their daily commitments. I wanted to find out the parents’

views on their children’s English acquisition and values of their native language as well as

their culture. It would be interesting to know the parents’ views because this would help their

children’s learning experiences at the centre.

The use of video footageDuring my observation, I video-recorded and took photographs of situations between the case

study children and the teachers. Some of the video footages recorded interactions between

teachers and case study children and teacher-led activities where case study children were

either or indirectly directly or indirectly involved. Although, I planned to show selected

video-footages and photographs to the teachers during the interviews, I didn’t do it as I

thought it would be sufficient to just mention the incidents in the video-footages and

photographs to the teachers. I realized then that the teachers would probably have found the

video-footages and photographs useful, themselves. The video footages and photographs, as

stimulus tools would help the teachers to better recall and reflect, thus probably a more well-

thought discussions during the interviews sessions.

CONCLUSIONAs this study aimed to explore the early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices in

supporting Asian immigrant ELLs as they acquire English, this has been illustrated by the

themes derived from the interviews with the teachers and observations made during their

interactions with Asian immigrants ELLs. One of the teachers hoped for adequate support for

ongoing professional development for teachers in knowledge of first and second language

acquisition. This becomes increasingly important for teachers to be well-prepared for teaching

and learning in cross-racial, cross-ethnic, and cross-cultural situations.

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