Handbook of Early Language Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Early Language Education as a Distinctive Research Area

   • Mila Schwartz

   Pages 1-26

3. General Foundations in Early Language Education

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27

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   2. Cognition and Young Learners’ Language Development

      • Yuko Goto Butler

      Pages 29-56

   3. Vocabulary Development in Early Language Education

      • He Sun, Bin Yin

      Pages 57-82

   4. Grammatical Development Within a Context of Early Bilingual Education and Language Support Programs

      • Natalia Gagarina, Alessandra Milano

      Pages 83-116

   5. Emergent Literacy Development in Early Language Education

      • Miriam Minkov, Liubov Baladzhaeva

      Pages 117-142

   6. Early Language Education and Language Socialization

      • Asta Cekaite

      Pages 143-165

   7. Language Education Policies and Early Childhood Education

      • Åsa Palviainen, Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen

      Pages 167-192

   8. Ethical Issues in Research with Young Children in Early Second Language Education

      • Máire Mhic Mhathúna, Nóirín Hayes

      Pages 193-219

   9. A Critical Overview of Research Methods Used in Studies on Early Foreign Language Education in Preschools

      • Marianne Nikolov, Réka Lugossy

      Pages 221-257

4. Diversity of Contexts in Early Language Education

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 259-259

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   2. Early Years Education and the Reversal of Language Shift

      • Renée DePalma, Iria Sobrino-Freire

      Pages 261-285

   3. Indigenous Languages in Early Childhood Education in Chile

      • Rukmini Becerra-Lubies, Dayna Moya, Simona Mayo

      Pages 287-315

   4. Heritage Language Early Years’ Immersion: Irish-Medium Preschools in Ireland

      • Tina M. Hickey

      Pages 317-345

   5. Early Immersion in Minority Language Contexts: Canada and Finland

      • Karita Mård-Miettinen, Stephanie Arnott, Marie-Josée Vignola

      Pages 347-371

   6. Russian as a Home Language in Early Childhood Education

      • Ekaterina Protassova, Anna Golubeva, Ilze Mikelsone

      Pages 373-402

   7. Dual Language Education Models and Research in Early Childhood Education in the USA

      • Kathryn Lindholm-Leary

      Pages 403-425

   8. Vocabulary and Grammar Development in Young Learners of English as an Additional Language

      • Faidra Faitaki, Annina Hessel, Victoria A. Murphy

      Pages 427-447

   9. English as a Foreign Language in Early Language Education

      • Danijela Prošić-Santovac, Vera Savić

      Pages 449-473

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 thisvolume, “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.

• early childhood language development
• early language education
• language proficiency
• language learning in informal settings
• home language
• socio-cultural development and early education
• teacher language practices in early childhood
• bilingual multilingual upbringing
• sociolinguistics in early childhood education
• parent teacher interaction
• language socialization

• Department of Research Authority, Oranim Academic College of Education, Kiryat Tiv’on, Israel

  Mila Schwartz

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 Bronfenbrenner’s human ecology theory (1979, 1994) that provides a framework for understanding the role of early language education in a young child’s 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.

Policies and ethics