Teaching young multilingual learners: impacts of a professional learning programme on teachers’ practices and students’ language and literacy skills
Date
2025-03-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Abstract
Using a randomised control trial, we evaluated the impact of a year-long professional learning (PL) programme for teachers designed to support their multilingual learners’ language and literacy skills. The PL included evidence-based instructional practices for literacy, a semi-structured model for collaboration, and a strengths-based approach in instruction. Participants included 39 kindergarten and first-grade teachers and 106 multilingual learners (MLs) from 13 schools in two districts in the Southeastern United States. Using a mixed modelling approach, we found significantly higher literacy growth on the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) for MLs whose teachers participated in the PL. The PL also had a significant impact on teachers’ collaboration planning and processes with their students’ English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. Effect sizes for the impact on teachers’ use of evidence-based instructional strategies and collaboration frequency were large but not statistically significant. The findings from this study show positive impacts of a teacher professional learning programme on teachers’ practices and young MLs’ literacy growth.
Description
This article was originally published in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2472880.
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Keywords
multilingual learners, early literacy, teacher collaboration, randomised controlled trial, teacher professional learning, strengths-based approach
Citation
Babinski, Leslie, Steven Amendum, Madeline Carrig, Steven Knotek, and Marta Sanchez. 2025. “Teaching Young Multilingual Learners: Impacts of a Professional Learning Programme on Teachers’ Practices and Students’ Language and Literacy Skills.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, March, 1–20. doi:10.1080/01434632.2025.2472880.