Bidirectionality in Teacher Discourse Strategies among Preschool Dual Language Learners

该奖项是NSF社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在纽约大学医学院的劳里布罗特曼博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家调查教师使用话语策略与双语学习者（DLL）词汇和整个幼儿教育（ECE）年社会能力发展之间的关系-特别是快速增长的时期。研究结果将进一步从双语而不是单语的角度来理解DLL儿童的词汇和社会能力技能与教师的话语策略之间的复杂关系。这项工作的长期意义是通过提高教师的实践质量来减少不公平的幼儿教育经验，支持DLL独特的发展轨迹。DLL儿童在学习英语作为第二语言的同时也在学习母语，是美国儿童人口中增长最快的部分，他们的发展技能一直落后于单语英语同龄人。很少有人知道，是否DLL的教师正在提高他们的话语策略（儿童发展的更近端的决定因素之一），以满足独特的语言和发展需求的DLL。话语过程可能是双向的，教师的话语策略塑造DLL儿童的发展（词汇和社会能力）特点，以及被塑造。然而，我们了解的方式，教师适应他们的话语策略与DLL儿童和他们的话语策略与DLL可能会改变整个ECE年，作为DLL儿童提高他们的词汇和社会能力技能，是稀缺的。本研究利用在纽约市进行的一项更大规模的研究的数据，将评估在一个幼儿教育年度的三个时间点上，教师使用话语策略及其与DLL词汇和社会能力发展之间的同时和双向关系。通过探索教师使用话语策略和DLL儿童技能发展的动态本质，本工作从课堂实践领域的重点扩展到试图解开语言，实践和学习之间的复杂关系，这只是部分理解。本研究通过使用一种新的儿童级观察工具，将发展的视角应用于质量测量，解决了观察工具的方法学局限性，这对于不断增长的人口来说是非常缺乏的。最后，阐明话语策略的轨迹和儿童的词汇和社会能力的发展在多个时间点将提供一个更细致的理解，可以承担证据，为未来的研究和干预。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Laurie Brotman at New York University School of Medicine, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating relationship between teachers' use of discourse strategies and dual language learners (DLL) vocabulary and social competence development throughout the early childhood education (ECE) year - a time of, particularly rapid growth. The findings will further the fields' understanding of the complex relationship between DLL children's vocabulary and social competence skills and teachers' discourse strategies specifically from a bilingual rather than monolingual perspective. The long-term implication of this work is to reduce inequitable ECE experiences by improving the quality of teachers' practices that support DLLs unique developmental trajectories.DLLs, children who are acquiring their home language as they also learn English as a second language, are the fastest-growing segment of the child population in the United States, and their developmental skills have historically lagged behind monolingual English-speaking peers. Very little is known about whether teachers of DLLs are enhancing their discourse strategies (one of the more proximal determinants of children's development) to meet the unique linguistic and developmental needs of DLLs. Discourse processes may be bidirectional; with teachers' discourse strategies shaping as well as being shaped by the DLL children's developmental (vocabulary and social competence) characteristics. Yet, our understanding of the ways that teachers are adapting their discourse strategies with DLL children and how their discourse strategies with DLLs may shift throughout the ECE year, as DLL children improve in their vocabulary and social competence skills, is scarce. Using data from a larger study taking place in New York City, the present study will evaluate the simultaneous and bidirectional relationship between teachers' use of discourse strategies and its associations with DLLs' vocabulary and social competence development across three time points during an ECE year. By exploring the dynamic nature of teachers' use of discourse strategies and DLL children's skills development, the present work expands from the focus of the field on classroom practices, to try to unpack the complex relationship between language, practices, and learning, which is only partially understood. This study addresses methodological limitations of observational tools through the use of a novel child-level observational tool, which applies a developmental perspective to quality measurement that is sorely lacking for this growing population. Finally, elucidating the trajectory of discourse strategies and children's vocabulary and social competence development across multiple time points will provide a more nuanced understanding that can bear evidence for future research and interventions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.