All parents in the United States want their children to learn English, even if they speak a different language at home. They know that speaking and reading English is key to success in school and at work. But what's the best way for children with a different home language to learn English? At what age should they start? Should children also keep on learning in their family's language? How can preschools and schools help?

A family's language is a bond that connects the child to the family, says Lily Wong Filmore, a UC Berkeley professor and leading expert on young children's language learning. When children forget their parents' and grandparents' language or see their family's language and culture as undesirable, the family loses a powerful tool for supporting and guiding their children.

Wong Filmore questions the push for children to learn English to be "ready for school." She says children should learn to speak and read first in their home language. Then they can transfer those skills more easily to English.

But since Prop. 227 passed in 1998, California's official policy is to teach "overwhelmingly" in English. Many schools have dropped their bilingual education programs. In most California classrooms, children who start school knowing some English have a real advantage.

Child care and preschool programs can give kids a good start in English and their home languages. As a parent, you can find out whether your child's caregivers are taking these steps:

What can your child's caregivers do to help the children learn English?

• Hire staff who reflect the child's own language and culture. When children see adults with the language and culture of their families, it helps them "know they are valued," says Janet Gonzalez-Mena, professor of child development at Napa Valley College. That support helps them feel comfortable enough to start learning a new language
  
  
• If possible, have each adult speak to the child in only one language. For example, a classroom with a Spanish-speaking teacher could have an English-speaking assistant teacher. That helps children sort out which language is which.
  
  
• First teach "social language," the English words children need to function in school: Please, thank you, lunch, sit, bathroom.
  
  
• Help children learn language sounds with songs, rhymes, and repetition. They may learn the same song in English and Chinese, for example, and practice hearing and repeating sounds by repeating the songs.
  
  
• Reflect correct English when you speak to children. "Listening to children and practicing language together," is an ongoing process, says Andrea Wall, a preschool teacher at Calwa Elementary School in Fresno. If a child says, "I went store," the teacher can respond, "Oh, you went to the store?"
  
  
• Use visual displays and books, and give children "time for free choice using those materials to re-enact stories or songs," says Wall. Bilingual books and labels help children practice vocabulary. One kindergartener at Calwa came to school with a book from her church. Each page showed a bear in a different color, with the word for that color in English and Hmong.
  
  
• Show parents how they can help. "Get parents involved and model strategies for language learning at home," says Wall. She invites parents to watch her reading kids a story—pointing to the pictures, talking about the story. When parents read stories that way in their home languages, they help their children build skills they will use later in learning to read and write in English as well as their home language.

What can your child's caregivers do to support your child's home language?

• Value parents as the child's first teacher. "By seeing parents as the child's first educators, the child care center recognizes its role as an extension of the home culture," says Martha Cueva, a teacher supervisor at Centro Vida, a bilingual preschool in Berkeley.
  
  
• Provide books and materials in child's home language. "There needs to be an equal amount of funding" for home language and English language materials, says Gonzalez-Mena. "If one language has only books of a homemade type and the other language has pretty printed and bound editions, then children get the wrong messages on the value of one language over the other," she adds. "Also, these materials need to be able to go home with students to support literacy within the home," says Wall.
  
  
• Pay attention to how the home language is used. If the child care center uses the home language mainly for discipline and never disciplines the child in English, the child might develop a negative attitude toward the home language, says Gonzalez-Mena
  
  
• Invite parents and community members to help make the program bilingual and bicultural. "The child care center should have parents and community volunteers who represent the children's home language and cultures come into the program and talk with the children," Gonzalez-Mena adds. "Building a child's ability and confidence in the first language is excruciatingly important," says Centro Vida Director Beatriz Leyva Cutler, "especially when the teacher does not represent the home culture nor the child's first language."
  
  
• Invite parents to talk about their children's language education. When children go to school, parents often have a choice between a bilingual or an English-only classroom. "Child care centers can set up opportunities for parents to talk to children who grew up in an English-dominant, Spanish-dominant, or bilingual environment," says Leyva Cutler, to help parents "make informed decisions about the generational gift they can give to their child"—their language.

What can YOU do?

• Ask your child's caregivers about their views on language learning and explain yours.
• Volunteer in your child's classroom to share stories and songs in your language.
• Read to your child—in any language!

For more information on bilingual programs for young children, contact

• Your local Head Start program
• California Tomorrow, an organization that studies and promotes multicultural education, (510) 496-0220
• Your local child care resource and referral organization—to get the number of the one nearest you, call (800) 543-7793

Better off with preschool

A recent small study in Calwa Elementary School in Fresno showed that children who were just learning English did better in school if they had attended preschool. When they entered kindergarten, children who had attended preschool understood and spoke English better than children who had not. When they got to third grade, those who had attended preschool did better on reading and spelling tests. For more information on the study, contact mmf27@csufresno.edu.

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin 2006

• Reaching All Children? Understanding Early Care and Education Participation Among Immigrant Families, from the Center for Law and Social Policy, offers policy recommendations for states and communities to help ensure that early education programs address the needs of immigrant families -- and are accessible to them. Online at http://www.clasp.org/publications/child_care_immigrant.pdf
  
  
• Becoming Bilingual, from the Head Start Information Center, discusses why being bilingual is an asset, how children learn their first and second languages, and tips for teachers. For more resources: http://www.hellp.org/
  
  
• Bilingual Book of Rhymes, Songs, Stories and Fingerplays offers 450 bilingual songs and rhymes organized by theme. $30. RedLeaf Press, (800) 423-8309; summary online at http://www.redleafpress.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=758
  
  
• Talk to Your Baby, from the UK's National Literacy Trust, offers tips for parents to help children learn English as well as their home language. Includes frequently asked questions. Online at http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/Bilingual.html

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