The PROMISE Preschool envisions a pathway to biliteracy for young dual language children who:
This PROMISE Preschool vision can assist in producing dual language children who are bilingual and biliterate, curious and confident, with a strong sense of their own imagination and capacity to learn and interact with others in a variety of settings.
Why?
Underlying this vision is a core belief and empirically validated research finding that bilingualism enhances thinking and language abilities. Research at the preschool level shows that dual language learners make good progress in both English and Spanish and that their growth in both languages predicts their early reading abilities in English and Spanish. In elementary and secondary school, bilingual students achieve at higher levels than their ELL peers who were schooled only in English, and they close the achievement gap with English speakers. Also, bilinguals show clear advantages in processing information over children who are monolingual speakers.
How is the PROMISE Preschool guide different from other preschool models?
While high quality preschools are effective developmentally, they often fail to consider the unique needs of linguistically and culturally diverse dual language children. PROMISE Preschool Core Principles provide research-based guidance to optimize high quality preschools for dual language children.
For further research and information about DLL children and second language learning, click on the Additional Research and Resources link.