Early childhood teachers’ contribution to oral language: an exploration of New Zealand kindergarten teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and practices.

Aim: Early childhood teachers play a vital role in positively influencing the language trajectory of young children in their care. This study sought to investigate the unique beliefs, knowledge, and practices of New Zealand kindergarten teachers relating to oral language. It also sought to determine if their beliefs were associated with their (self-reported) practices and if there was evidence teachers’ beliefs or practices varied by the relative wealth of their kindergarten community. Method: A nationwide online survey was developed and distributed through the Qualtrics platform. The survey was a newly created measure to reflect the bicultural framework of the NZ early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki. Initial questions asked for participants’ demographic information including if their kindergarten received Targeted Funding (as a measure of disadvantage) and any prior oral language training. Further survey questions sought teachers’ beliefs and knowledge on language development and used a five point Likert scale (of either agreement or frequency) to examine teachers’ perspectives on how children learn language, as well as how frequently teachers used oral language practices, and across which kindergarten settings. Additional survey questions used an open text response format to explore what teachers believed influences language development, what language means to them and what they perceived to be the barriers to supporting oral language within the kindergarten. Results: Responses from 146 teachers were reported and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, with thematic analysis used for open text responses. Results revealed high to very high levels of group agreement of evidence based oral language knowledge and practices, with teachers demonstrating an understanding that oral language opportunities occur across all kindergarten settings. Teachers believed language development to be an active, interpersonal process founded in a close relationship with the child and their family/whānau, reflecting their knowledge of both Te Whāriki and international best practice evidence. Teachers believed they were just one of many influencing factors, and they considered home and family/whānau the most influential for supporting language. They were strong in their collective belief that screen time was a detrimental influence to language development. Approximately half the teachers (n=47%) reported their kindergarten received Targeted Funding, and most had attended prior oral language training. There was a positive association between teachers beliefs and their self-reported practices although there was no association between teachers’ beliefs nor practices and the relative wealth of their kindergarten. This suggests teachers were either unaware of the impact of poverty on language outcomes, or they were uncertain on how to alter their practices to best support children from low SES communities. Teachers also expressed uncertainty regarding the long term trajectory of early language development and that early vocabulary learning underpins future literacy and academic success. Teachers would benefit from increased knowledge in both these areas. Teachers also cited several environmental factors which negatively impacted on their ability to support oral language within the kindergarten. These included inadequate teacher-child ratios, acoustically challenging centres, and a lack of accessible and timely external support (e.g., speech language therapy). Teachers specifically requested more regular access to SLTs, and more professional development opportunities for oral language. Discussion: This study is the first known study to explore the oral language beliefs/knowledge and practices of NZ kindergarten teachers in such detail. Results indicate kindergarten teachers are highly knowledge about language development and supportive teaching practices. However, teachers perceive environmental factors as negatively impacting on their ability to implement these practices as frequently as they would like. This study could be replicated with a wider sample of early childhood teachers, including non-qualified teachers. This study contributes to our understanding of the complex and multiple influences on early language learning, including both the knowledge and practices of the teachers, plus the distal, but modifiable environmental factors. This insight can be used to inform development within the early childhood sector, and ultimately, to improve young children’s oral language outcomes