Abstract
An Investigation of Teachers’ Perceptions on Pre-Literacy Skills of Bilingual and Non-Bilingual Preschool Children
Bilingualism is the ability to use two different languages at the same level and to communicate and understand people in both languages. In order for bilingual children to learn both languages correctly and to have high academic achievements in the coming years, it is necessary to carry out bilingual education programs in preschool education institutions, and to support the pre-literacy skills of these children who are in the process of transition to primary school. In this study, it is aimed to determine the perceptions of the preschool teachers by examining their opinions, practices, class environments and the documents used in the development of pre-literacy skills of the bilingual and non-bilingual children in their classrooms. The data of the study were collected with the observation form, interview form and document analysis form prepared by the researchers. In line with the opinions of field experts, validity and reliability studies of the prepared forms were conducted and a teacher was interviewed for pilot implementation. Observations were made about the practices and designing their classrooms for both bilingual and non-bilingual children, investigations were made related with their documents used in the classroom and semi-structured interviews were conducted with six teachers who were selected by purposeful sampling. As a result of this case study, except for one teacher, it was determined that teachers did not develop a positive perception towards the literacy skills of non-bilingual children and the bilingual children. In the light of the research results, recommendations were given to preschool teachers, administrators and researchers in the field.
Keywords
Bilingualism, pre-literacy, preschool, teacher perceptions
