Helios Education Foundation’s Dual Language Learner Project: Early Impacts of Emergent Literacy and Language Acquisition Skills for Educators and Pre-K Students
Overview
As Helios Education Foundation works to create more equitable education systems, the Foundation recognizes the importance of addressing the needs of our youngest learners. Helios is implementing robust professional development research projects in Arizona and Florida aimed at improving the language and emergent literacy of children entering kindergarten, using a two-way language immersion model. In two-way immersion, children who speak English and children who speak Spanish both learn content together, through both languages. This report, the second in a set of education briefs about the project in Arizona (see Ortiz et al., n.d.), includes initial data on how dual language learning (DLL) is influencing classroom practices and children’s learning.
To guide our work in Arizona and Florida, Helios commissioned a multi-year research study with our partners. The goal is to examine both the implementation of the program, and, more importantly, its impacts on teachers’ use of high-quality teaching strategies and on children’s acquisition of language and literacy skills. We believe this work will spur the use of innovative and effective instructional strategies for our youngest English Language Learners (ELLs), helping to ensure their success in kindergarten and beyond. We plan to disseminate our research results to inform public policy and practice.