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Preschool World Language

Decent Essays

Introduction
The author will reflect on the article “Preschool World Language Learners’ Engagement with Language: What are the Possibilities? The prevailing thought that younger is better when acquiring a second language is shared by language education professionals, parents, and administrators (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). Although studies show evidence that a young learner does not have unlimited advantages due to age, beginning the learning process earlier gives opportunity for attainment of language abilities throughout the lifespan (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). World language learning (WLL) continues to increase in popularity in the United States (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). This author will reflect on the outcome of an exploratory study of preschool classrooms participating in the same WLL program. Discussion will include language awareness, teacher-initiated engagement with language, and student-initiated engagement with language.
Justification
The author chose to reflect on this article because …show more content…

This EWL is directly asking students to recall information and is not cognitively demanding (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). In this interaction, the children are affectively willing to engage by responding to the teacher (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). Child A responds with the translation, and the teacher asks all students to repeat the word (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). The students’ response is not autonomous and relies heavily on the teacher’s contribution to the conversation (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). This EWL highly controlled the depth and ways in which the students participated (Kearney & Ahn, 2014). In the aforementioned EWL episode, rather than treating language as a means of communication, it is treated as an object in which children do not notice the form on their own (Kearney & Ahn,

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