The Influence of Teachers and Peers on Second Language Acquisition in Bilingual Prescbool Programs

• Published in: TESOL quarterly 1983-09, Vol.17 (3), p.401-419
• Main Authors: CHESTERFIELD, RAY, HAYES‐LATIMER, KATHERINE, CHESTERFIELD, KATHLEEN BARROWS, CHÁVEZ, REGINO
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0039-8322; 1545-7249
• DOI: 10.2307/3586255

The interfactional patterns of eleven Spanish‐speaking preschool children enrolled in two different bilingual programs were observed over the course of one year. The programs were characterized by a majority of Spanish‐speaking children in the classrooms at one site and of English‐speaking children in the classrooms at the second preschool. Consistent with the linguistic composition of the classes, teaching staffs were generally found to use a predominance of Spanish or English respectively in their classrooms. For all classrooms, language choices of individual children were examined. In classrooms where English‐speaking children predominated, greater language proficiency was found to be more consistently related to the use of English with peers than with teachers. In classrooms where Spanish‐speaking students were prevalent, on the other hand, interactions with the teachers in English were more consistently related to greater English language proficiency. Implications for the teaching of young children in a dual language environment are discussed.