This is the first international and interdisciplinary handbook to offer a comprehensive and an in-depth overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early childhood language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. The contributions by leading scholars and practitioners are structured to give a survey of the topic, highlight its importance, and provide a critical stance. The book covers preschool ages, and looks at children belonging to diverse ethno-linguistic groups and experiencing different histories and pathways of their socio-linguistic and socio-cultural development and early education. The languages under the scope of this handbook are identified by the contributors as immigrant languages, indigenous, endangered, heritage, regional, minority, majority, and marginalized, as well as foreign and second languages, all of which are discussed in relation to early language education as the key concept of the handbook. In this volume, “early language education” will refer to any kind of setting, both formal and informal (e.g. nursery, kindergarten, early childhood education centers, complementary early schooling etc.) in which language learning within a context of children's sociolinguistic diversity takes place before elementary school.
Preface.- Introduction (including some brief historical perspectives on
early language education) The Editors Part I General foundations in language
education during the early years.
Chapter
1. Early language education and
language socialization.
Chapter
2. Language education policy in early
language education.
Chapter
3. Intercultural education and early language
learning.
Chapter
4. The role of cognitive factors in young learners
language development.
Chapter
5. Grammar development in early language
education.
Chapter
6. Vocabulary and grammar development in young language
learners of English.
Chapter
6. Vocabulary development in early language
education.
Chapter
7. Emergent literacy development in early language
education.
Chapter
8. Children with special needs in early language
education.
Chapter
9. Methodological approaches to studying early language
education.- Part II Diversity of sociolinguistic contexts in early language
education.
Chapter
10. Dual language model in the early years in the US.-
Chapter
11. EFL in early language education.- Chapter
12. Early years
education and the reversal of language shift.
Chapter
13. Early immersion in
minority language context (Canada and Finland).
Chapter
14. Heritage
language immersion context: Irish immersion preschools.
Chapter
15. Russian
language among immigrant population in early education.
Chapter
16. Content
and Language Integrated Learning in Europe.- Part III Children, teachers, and
parents in interaction.- Chapter
17. Talking with children: how can teachers
and parents best support 3-5-year olds?.
Chapter
18. Children's', teachers'
and parents' agency in interaction in early language education.
Chapter
19.
The interaction between family language policy and educators in early
language education.
Chapter
20. Educational partnerships of teachers,
parents and children in diverse preschool contexts.
Chapter
21. Family
language planning strategies in pre-primary age.- Part IV Pedagogical aspects
in early language education.
Chapter
22. Preparing teachers for early
language education.
Chapter
23. Team teaching in early language education.-
Chapter 24: Benefits of early language instruction vary by learning
contexts.
Chapter
25. From preprimary to primary learning of English as a
foreign language: Coherence and continuity issues.
Chapter
26. Nursery
rhymes in early language education.
Chapter
27. Picture books in early
language education: A critical review of their uses.
Chapter
28. Promoting
communication skills with child L2 learners.
Chapter
29. Creating language
conducive strategies and contexts in early language education.- Part V Early
language education in different countries.
Chapter
30. Early language
education in Singapore.
Chapter
31. Early language education in Australia.-
Chapter
32. Early childhood language education in Canada.
Chapter 33: Early
language education in the United Arab Emirates.
Chapter
34. Early language
education in Russia.
Chapter
35. Early language education within state
multilingual context: a case of Luxemburg.
Chapter
36. Early language
education of immigrant children in Sweden.- Concluding summary: The Editors.-
Index.
Mila Schwartz is professor in language and education and the Head of Research Authority in Oranim Academic College of Education (Israel). She received her first degree from the Pedagogical State University of Saint-Petersburg in linguistics and literature and completed her MA and PhD in the University of Haifa, in learning disabilities and literacy development among bilingual and trilingual children. Professor Schwartz conducted her post doc studies in Ben-Gurion University, Israel (the Kreitman Foundation Fellowships), and in Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.
Her research interests include studying language policy and models of early language education, linguistic, cognitive, and socio-cultural development of early sequential bilinguals/multilinguals and family language policy. Currently, her research focuses on theorizing the phenomenon of interactions between child language-based agency, teacher's agency, and parents' agency in early language education. In this research she draws on Bronfenbrenners human ecology theory (1979, 1994) that provides a framework for understanding the role of early language education in a young childs life. Recently, she has proposed and elaborated on the following theoretical concepts: Language-conducive context, language-conducive strategies, and child language-based agency. Her academic distinction at the international level is based on more than 20 years of extensive research and exemplary achievements in academia and at top-tier research organizations such as the International Symposium of Bilingualism, where she held the position of Secretary of the Steering Committee from 2015 to 2019, and the Multilingual Childhoods Network (known also as the Special Interest Group, SIG, of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association, EECERA), where she currently acts as Convenor.
