teachers' perceptions of their relationships with children who speak English as an additional language in early childhood settings

Abstract

The study investigated ten early childhood teachers' perceptions of their relationships with 120 children (mean age = 4 years 3 months), of whom 41 children spoke English as an additional language (EAL: mean age = 4 years 2 months). The Student—Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) was employed to elicit teachers' perceptions of their relationships in the first and third terms of a school year. The results show that, while children who have the least experience in spoken English were scored significantly lower on the STRS Closeness Scale by their teachers as compared with the rest of the children at the beginning of the school year, these differences were not significant at the end of the school year. The findings add empirical support to the importance of verbal communication, in addition to teachers' sensitivity towards EAL children's non-verbal expressions, as the basis for developing positive teacher—child relationships.