Dual-language development of minority speakers from face-to-face to remote delivery

The rapid shutting down of daycares and schools due to COVID-19 have left many new Canadian families isolated due to limited proficiency in English and small social networks. In regular school programs, teachers have expressed that reaching families who do not speak the language of schooling has been particularly challenging due to the language barrier. On the other hand, families have reported that being at home has strengthened their child’s minority language, suggesting a silver lining to these difficult times. Informed by the challenges faced by our partner, ABC Head Start Society, the proposed project applies a community based participatory framework towards the goal of including and empowering our research partner and members of the community in the research process.
The research being undertaken within the SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant study builds on our previous research in providing dual-language support for young language learners in a preschool or kindergarten environment (MacLeod, Meziane & Pesco et al., 2020), and extends this research to adapt to the COVID-19 context. Our goal is to assess the barriers and facilitators to dual-language learning among children who speak a minority language at home, and pilot a program to adapt to the COVID-19 context.

Faculty Supervisor:

Andrea MacLeod

Student:

Wendy Amoako

Partner:

ABC Head Start Society

Discipline:

Journalism / Media studies and communication

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Alberta