A Qualitative Study in Early Childhood Education and Care

Running head: DISSERTATION
“A Qualitative Study in Early Childhood Education and Care Setting (Age 1 to 4) to exploring
how practitioners work with families to enable young children’s mother tongue and English
Language Development”
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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DISSERTATION
Abstract
This research has investigated an in-depth qualitative study based on Early Childhood Education
and Care Setting to explore how care practitioners work with parents in addressing barriers of
mother tongue and English those children between 1 to 4 years face. The introductory chapter of
the dissertation presents the view about how professional care practitioners work with families to
create a comfortable and healthy environment for children to learn. An in-depth literature review
has been performed and the papers indicate the fact that bilingualism and multilingual learning is
broadly focusing on children’s rights. Children are often involved into diverse activities as well
as practices that enhance their mother tongue as well as the other languages. The major purpose
of the study is to investigate how practitioners work with parents to deal with challenges of
children when learning mother tongue and English. As this is a qualitative study, qualitative data
has been collected by performing a semi-structured interview among the practitioners and
parents as well as observation method has been applied to learn how practitioners treat the
children at care setting. A non-probability convenient sampling method has been applied to the
study and the sampling frame includes 3 practitioners and 3 parents. Thematic analysis is
conducted based on qualitative data analysis style. In thematic analysis it is portrayed that
English language helps the children in overcoming communication barrier. The findings of the
study indicate the fact practitioners in the care setting uses practical examples at the time of
explaining the story and especially, the children who are unable to understand the language used
by practitioners could be convinced by observing those picture. It is necessary to develop a
comprehensible communication, learning and development programs. Children with better
language skills, in any language could develop their brain better, develop stronger bonds with
their parents and other members, gain effective communication skills and well prepare for
school. On the basis of the stated findings, practitioners and parents are suggested to apply

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DISSERTATION
practical ideas to support children under four years old, and Strategies to develop children’s
English

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DISSERTATION
Acknowledgement
The completion of the research project gave me utmost satisfaction as, I have learnt many things
in the field of childhood education. I have learnt several techniques of performing an academic
study. However, on the completion of the project, I would like to thank a number of people have
helped me throughout the dissertation and without their contribution this writing is meaningless.
Firstly, I thank my supervisors who helped me in selecting the topic and choosing the method for
data collection. I thank my friends and colleagues who helped me during the implementation of
interview. Last by not the least, I would like to thank my parents who encourage me to do this
dissertation.
Thanking you all,

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DISSERTATION
Table of Content
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................6
1.1 Background of Research........................................................................................................6
1.2 Research Rationale................................................................................................................7
1.3 Research Statement................................................................................................................8
1.4 Significance of the study.......................................................................................................9
1.5Research Aim..........................................................................................................................9
1.6Research Objectives................................................................................................................9
1.7 Research Questions..............................................................................................................10
1.8 Research methods................................................................................................................10
1.9 Research Structure...............................................................................................................11
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................13
2.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................13
2.1 Concept of Bilingualism or multilingualism practices in childhood...................................14
2.2 Importance of Developing Bilingualism or Multilingualism at early childhood................15
2.3 Role of parents for practicing the multi-lingual and English Language Development.......16
2.4 Strategies practitioners suggest to parents in multi-lingual families...................................17
2.5 Challenges that practitioners faces while developing children’s mother tongue and English
language.....................................................................................................................................20
2.6 Practitioners will work differently with bilingual families in the future.............................22

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2.7 Effective ways on how practitioners work with bilingual families.....................................23
2.8 Parents’ point of views of the ways in which practitioners’ work with them.....................24
2.9 Literature gap.......................................................................................................................26
2.10 Summary............................................................................................................................26
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................28
3.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................28
3.1 Methodological Rationale/Aim...........................................................................................28
3.2 Research Paradigm..............................................................................................................29
3.3 Research Approach..............................................................................................................31
3.4 Research Design..................................................................................................................32
3.5 Research Method.................................................................................................................32
3.6 Sampling Strategy................................................................................................................34
3.7 Data Analysis.......................................................................................................................35
3.8 Ethical Principles.................................................................................................................36
3.9 Precautions undertaken by the researcher to minimize the potential risks..........................37
3. 10 Rights of Withdrawal........................................................................................................38
3. 11 Reliability and Validity.....................................................................................................38
3.12 Confidentiality and Anonymity.........................................................................................39
3.13 Debriefing participants......................................................................................................39
3.14 Timeline.............................................................................................................................40

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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS...............................................................................41
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................41
4.2 Qualitative Data Analysis....................................................................................................41
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................................................52
5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................52
5.2 Recommendation.................................................................................................................53
References......................................................................................................................................56

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
“A Qualitative Study in Early Childhood Education and Care Setting (Age 1 to 4) to exploring
how practitioners work with families to enable young children’s mother tongue and English
1.0 Introduction
This research project is based on Early Childhood Education and Care Setting to explore how
care practitioners work parents and family members to enable young children to speak mother
language and English. Early childhood education is an ongoing norm that has the significant
impact on children’s lives. Bilingualism is one of the crucial parts of early childhood education
that is driven by both the families and practitioners. The major aim of the study is to discover the
difficulties and challenges of children and parents whose mother tongue is not English. It has
been observed that the children face the difficulties in communicating in English, especially
when their mother tongue is different. According to Genesee (2015), the involvement of the
children into the bilingualism development from the early childhood is thus quite necessary. The
contribution of the practitioners and the families is crucial in developing mother tongue and
English language. The purpose of the research work is to explore how practitioners work with
parents and family members for the development of bilingual and multilingual children.
1.1 Background of Research
A study performed by Britto et al. (2017), on bilingualism and its importance has mentioned
that a bilingual individual in general, is someone who can speak two languages. A balanced
bilingual speak each language as proficiently as an educated native speaker. According to this
author, this can be often referred as an ideal type as only few people are considered as being able
to reach or carry this standards. On the other side, Bers et al. (2014) performed a study and