Developing early literacy is usually seen as an important step in promoting a child’s progress. The specified task has recently been placed on the agenda of multiple academic institutions due to the rise in the amount of information and the range of skills that students will need to develop in order to succeed in their academic performance though primary to middle school to higher education (Lin et al., 2017). Known as the emergent literacy, the phenomenon of rapid development and acquisition of learning skills in young students needs to be boosted in all learners to prompt their further academic success (Chen et al., 2017). However, among the vital factors on which the successful development of emergent literacy hinges, one must mention parental involvement (Chen et al., 2017).
Nevertheless, without proper guidance, parents often face challenges in supporting their children in learning, which is especially true for parents of ESL students. Therefore, the assistance of educators and collaboration between teachers and parents must be regarded as the key to building a perfect environment for emergent literacy. In the context of the present-day settings, when communication with strangers is reduced to a minimum due to the threat of the COVID-19, the introduction of digital tools needs to be tested as the method of guiding parents toward supporting ESL children in building emergent literacy skills.
Background
Emergent literacy is one of the essential phenomena in the development of a young learner. Creating the basis for an intuitive understanding of the language and building the ability to speak it freely, emergent literacy provides the core for the further development of abstract and critical thinking in students (Lin et al., 2017). However, young ESL students often face problems when gaining the specified skills while also striving to learn English as their second language (Trainin et al., 2017). Specifically, the failure in code-switching remains a recurrent problem for the specified type of learners, which is why the introduction of parental assistance coupled with the guidance from educators is strongly recommended.
However, since parents lack the skills needed to guide their children through the process of building prowess in mastering both languages, the support of professional educators is required. Direct communication and consultations are preferable due to the need to address the unique needs of every learner (Đurišić & Bunijevac, 2017). However, since the present-day academic setting has been heavily affected by the coronavirus, digital tools for parent-teacher communication should be considered as the only option (König et al., 2020). For this reason, the use of webinars as the methods of instructing parents to support their children in the acquisition and training of early literacy skills for speaking English will be tested.
Proposal
The goals of this paper include testing the efficacy of webinars and the related tools in assisting parents of ESL children in building the premises for emergent literacy in their children, thus guiding them toward stellar school performance.
Rationale
The role that emergent literacy plays in the further ability to acquire critical thinking skills, abstract thinking abilities, and the related aptitudes, is truly tremendous. Studies have proven that emergent literacy defines a child’s further ability to develop critical and abstract thinking, as well as the skills of logical reasoning (Anjana and Prema, 2018). Therefore, the promotion of emergent literacy in younger learners must become the focus of the present-day academic research.
Methodology
In order to examine the effects that webinars and online training combined with simulations and tasks has on the ability of parents to support their children’s early childhood development, one will need to adopt a mixed research method. Namely, it will be critical to define the qualitative changes in parents’ attitudes toward the significance of their involvement in their children’s learning and cognitive development (Park et al., 2017). In addition, the quantitative aspect of the research will allow measuring the extent to which parents will have developed the prowess in supporting their children and guiding them to the development of early childhood literacy while gaining crucial ESL skills.
The age range of the participants is slightly more homogenous, most target people to be recruited for the seminars being 35-45 years old. The main criteria for participant selection will include the presence of young child who is in the process of starting his or her early education. For the study, 40 participants will be selected using the random sampling technique. The parents’ attitude toward early childhood education, as well as their understanding of how it can be supported, will be measured as a pre- and post-test assessment.
In order to complete the research, a comprehensive review of the available literature on the topic will be required. Specifically, the latest studies on the subject matter, including primary and secondary research, as well as key theories, will be integrated into the review to ensure that the program to be built will encompass the needs of diverse audiences. Moreover, tools for reaching out to the parents of ESL students will also be designed.
It is worth noting that the research will contain several control points at which the progress will be checked and any issues will be addressed accordingly. Thus, the threat of obtaining incorrect data or misinterpreting the available information will be avoided.
Work Packages
Preparation and Literature Review
An in-depth review of current sources will be provided to ensure that the latest information is used in the procedure. Thus, the efficacy of the education process will remain high, whereas the process will maintain its relevance.
Research Instrument Development
A questionnaire based on the Likert-type scale will be used for evaluate parents’ understanding of their children’s educational needs. In turn, the children’s progress will be assessed based on the use of pictures as the tool for guiding learners.
Creation of a Collaboration Framework
In order to ensure that collaboration between teachers and parents is productive, the framework for delivering instruction to parents, obtaining feedback, observing results, and providing further guidelines will be built.
Analysis and Discussion
The analysis of the data will be performed using the mixed research method. Namely, the qualitative approach will be utilized to determine the course of the general progress in patients, particularly, in their understanding of their children’s needs. In turn, the progress of learners will be determined using the quantitative approach.
Collaboration Framework Assessment
To evaluate the efficacy of the developed collaboration approach, the parents’ understanding of the learning process and the performance of their children will be assessed (qualitatively and quantitatively, respectively).
Collaboration and Teaching Strategy Improvement
After the evidence concerning the efficacy of the said strategy is obtained, it will be updated accordingly based on the observed performance of the framework and the changes in parents’ understanding of their children’s needs, as well as the children’s performance as young learners/
Final Evaluation
The final report will feature key conclusions and insights gained from working with parents on enhancing the efficacy of early education.
Program of Work
In order to help parents of young learners to advance in their development of crucial skills for encouraging early learning in children, a program containing key lectures for parents, essential visuals for remembering the crucial information, and simulations in the course of which the parents’ knowledge will be tested will be designed. Afterward, parents will be recruited for the participation in the training. The target population will be sampled from the parents representing a local community, which is mostly ethically diverse. The seminars will consist of crucial strategies for parents to engage their children in early childhood learning, particularly, the development of essential language skills both for their native tongue and for English. Moreover, the seminars will cover issues such as critical and abstract thinking, different stages of early childhood development according to Piaget, Erikson, and Vygotsky, and the approaches for building critical abilities (Colombo et al., 2019). For instance, the issues regarding challenges of code-switching and the possible confusion that ESL children may experience at the stage of early childhood learning will be discussed.
Possible Issues
Since the key materials for this study will be represented by the recordings of seminars, and the assessment of individual feedback from parents, the probability of a one-sided, subjective interpretation of research results may emerge, which represents an ethical concern. Indeed, even with the measurement tool that offers a quantitative assessment of the research outcomes, the presence of the qualitative analysis results and the need to interpret data from a personal perspective implies the threat of subjectivity (Anderson et al., 2017). The specified outcome also leads to a professional issue of misrepresenting the target environment, and the problem, thus contributing to making the wrong assumption (Albers & Lakens, 2018). Finally, legal implications concerning the possible failure to keep the confidentiality of the participants may arise (Anderson et al., 2017). However, the specified concerns can be managed by phrasing the questions in the way that will allow participants to answer them clearly and unambiguously and avoiding mentioning the participants’ names, instead replacing them with initials. Thus, their responses will not be interpreted in the wrong manner when implementing the analysis, and the participants’ identities will remain undisclosed.
Relevance to Beneficiaries
The research described above is expected to produce a significant effect on the key stakeholders that are believed to be affected by its outcomes. The key economic impact of the suggested measure includes the opportunity for parents to save on tutoring and the related services once their children start going to school and immediately face difficulties due to their poor command of English. Likewise, the social impact of the proposed measure will involve greater chances for ESL children to integrate into their new community and socialize with local children (Wallhead & Dyson, 2017). However, the proposed seminars may also entail scientific problems, such as the necessity to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the parents’ sociocultural background and the necessity to create a homogenous communication framework.
Research Management Plan
The first step of the research will involve collecting the necessary data and arranging the resources in the way that will help to implement the training. Afterward, possible obstacles to completing the research will be isolated. These include ethical, legal, and financial concerns. For instance, obtaining informed consent from the participants will be essential to allow them to participate in the study. In addition, a strong security system for data management must be introduced since the research will require personal information from participants.
After being collected from the participant with the help of pre- and post-test procedures, the information will be stored at a secure server and protected with the help of an elaborate encryption method. Thus, the participants’ information will remain discreet, and the possibility of security breach will be driven to zero. In turn, the fourth step of the research management plan will require information processing, as well as its further sharing and reuse by scholars.
Justification of Resources
In the course of the study, resources including visuals, digital tools for conducting online meetings and performing digital simulation, and analytical software will be utilized in this study. The need to collect accurate data and process it carefully, as well as ensure that the participants’ identities will remain safe throughout the research process, is the main justification for the specified resources to be used. In addition, the visuals and the simulation tools will play a critical role in educating parents about the strategies that they should use when advancing the early learning process and assisting their children to become ESL learners.
Reference List
Albers, C., & Lakens, D. (2018). When power analyses based on pilot data are biased: Inaccurate effect size estimators and follow-up bias. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 74, 187-195.
Anderson, S. F., Kelley, K., & Maxwell, S. E. (2017). Sample-size planning for more accurate statistical power: A method adjusting sample effect sizes for publication bias and uncertainty. Psychological Science, 28(11), 1547-1562.
Anjana, A. V. and Prema, K. S. (2018) ‘Exploring the relationship between letter knowledge and environmental print recognition in English Language Learners’, Journal of Second and Multiple Language Acquisition–JSMULA, 6(1), pp. 19-34.
Chen, Y., Carger, C. L. and Smith, T. J. (2017) ‘Mobile-assisted narrative writing practice for young English language learners from a funds of knowledge approach’, Language Learning & Technology, 21(1), pp. 28-41.
Colombo, M., Tigert, J. M. and Leider, C. M. (2019) ‘Positioning teachers, positioning learners: Why we should stop using the term English learners’, TESOL Journal, 10(2), pp. 1-8.
Đurišić, M., & Bunijevac, M. (2017). Parental involvement as an important factor for successful education. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 7(3), 137-153.
König, J., Jäger-Biela, D. J., & Glutsch, N. (2020). Adapting to online teaching during COVID-19 school closure: teacher education and teacher competence effects among early career teachers in Germany. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 608-622.
Lin, H. H., Wei, L. and Wang, M. C. (2017) ‘Reading development during early elementary school years in young English language learners’, Journal of Advances in Education Research, 2(4), p. 225.
Park, M. H., Dimitrov, D. M., Patterson, L. G., & Park, D. Y. (2017). Early childhood teachers’ beliefs about readiness for teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 15(3), 275-291.
Trainin, G., Wessels, S., Nelson, R. and Vadasy, P. (2017) ‘A study of home emergent literacy experiences of young Latino English learners’, Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(5), pp. 651-658.
Wallhead, T., & Dyson, B. (2017). A didactic analysis of content development during cooperative learning in primary physical education. European Physical Education Review, 23(3), 311-326.