Parental strategies for enhancing preschoolers’ familiarization with EFL

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of how parenting behaviors can affect and enhance preschoolers’ learning of English as a foreign language (EFL). Research shows that early childhood is a crucial period for language learning and development. Teaching professionals can promote English language skills in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds through early childhood educational programs. However, growing evidence from research studies reveals that parents can also influence and enliven language learning in preschoolers by adopting elicitation strategies. Given the increasing importance of the impact of English as a global language, the contextualized approach of these studies sheds light on the potential of a language education-focused effective and active partnership between preschoolers’ parents and teachers. The first part of this paper will review, on the one hand, previous literature about early childhood from a psycholinguistic and neurobiological perspective and, on the other hand, research regarding the potential of parental engagement during this critical developmental age. The second part of this study will focus on the analysis of data collected from a web-based survey, designed to investigate the practices parents are engaged at home to provide their preschool children with EFL exposure in Italy. Indeed, the interesting aspect of my research is that it highlights the existence of situations where parents use English language within the family routine even if they live in an EFL context (non-English speaking country). Considering the benefits and the challenges of parental engagement in supporting early EFL learning, the aim of this paper is to raise awareness about the important affective and cognitive role that parents can play in preschoolers’ familiarization with EFL. Taking full advantage of the early childhood and creating an enjoyable family environment, characterized by effective parent-child interaction and daily input exposure, parents can successfully provide their children with experiences and activities that are likely to foster their future EFL learning, social and intercultural skills.