Only a small number of children with atypical language development who can benefit from early intervention are actually identified before reaching school age. Our aim was to explore perceptions of caregivers of monolingual and multilingual children with and without atypical language development in order to provide relevant themes for improving language screening and referral in Well Child Care (WCC). We interviewed 38 Dutch caregivers of monolingual and multilingual children with and without atypical language development. They were recruited via kindergarten, nurseries, and speech and language pathologists. First, we analyzed the interviews of caregivers of monolingual children with atypical language development and caregivers of multilingual children. Second, we adopted data source triangulation with the interviews of caregivers of monolingual children without atypical language development for further exploration of the results of the first round. Third, we categorized emerging codes across identified subthemes and themes. We identified six subthemes: (1) Perception WCC; (2) Perception consult at the WCC; (3) Opinion of the consult at the WCC; (4) Desires regarding WCC; (5) Parent factors, and (6) Child factors (first and second round). Target themes, relating to the themes and subthemes, that can be used to enhance structural language screening in WCC are: a more family oriented consult, better interprofessional collaboration, and more specific knowledge about language development and different referral routes for children with atypical language development.
The role of subject teachers in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has received little attention, since most research focuses on language learning results of students. This exploratory study aims to gain insight into the perceptions of Dutch bilingual education history teachers by comparing teaching CLIL with regular history teaching. We used questionnaires and interviews to collect data. Results show that bilingual education history teachers perceived their dual task as language and subject teachers to be challenging. Teaching in English also enriched their teaching skills and eventually had a positive influence on their level of job satisfaction.
Improvisational drama techniques (IDTs) can benefit foreign language (FL) learners by offering them an engaging way to practise speaking while hiding behind the safety of a character mask. This study aimed to glean perceptions toward and experiences with IDTs among FL student teachers, as well as training needs related to integrating IDTs as a pedagogical tool. Foreign language student teachers at a Dutch university who had not received IDT-training took part in a questionnaire (n = 197). Former student teachers who had taken such a course in drama were interviewed in depth (n = 9). Almost all student teachers - both those who had and had not received IDT-training-shared the belief that IDTs have added pedagogical value. The majority of student teachers who had not had drama training indicated that they did not often implement IDTs in their classes. Former student teachers who had IDT-training continued to integrate IDTs with some regularity. Both groups provided valuable input on the components that should be included in a future IDT-training module for both student teachers and in-service teachers. Our findings give rise to the hypothesis that training can play a key role in galvanizing teachers to implement IDTs, and allow us to formulate design criteria for an innovative training module.
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