Mila Schwartz

• Full Prof.
• Vice Rector at Oranim Academic College of Education

The conceptual model integrating linguistically and culturally responsive teaching with family funds of knowledge, language education, and family language policies.

With the advent of international freedom of movement, we are witnessing a rapid influx of children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in mainstream preschools. Preschool education scholars have argued that teachers must work collaboratively with these children’s families to support their “linguistic security” and well-being. The paper...

This introductory paper seeks to demonstrate how the articles in this volume enhance our understanding of child agency in both language development at home and language learning in educational environments. The four contributions in this Special Issue address various aspects of child agency in early childhood. The volume aims to strengthen this eme...

Teacher education is founded on research, to shape teachers’ professional approach based on sound scientific knowledge. In addition, teachers require the capacity to experience themselves as lifelong learners, through constant questioning and critical reflection on their professional lifestyle (Niemi, 2012). This study aimed to explore how leading...

The Circassian language is the heritage language (HL) of a small minority group in Israel. Since its classification as an endangered language around the globe, the focus has been put on effective maintenance programs. Changes in education methods within Circassian communities were inevitable. In Israel, the Circassian Maintenance Program is crucial...

This chapter delves into the development of agency among leading preschool teachers in a culturally and linguistically diverse environment in a small city in Northern Israel. Despite recent macro-level policy changes valuing children's home languages, the micro-level implementation by teachers still needs to be explored. Local teachers and policyma...

This study aimed to explore how teachers' funds of knowledge and identity shape their beliefs and knowledge about linguistically and culturally diverse students and mediate the respective practices in the classroom. The study was conducted in a state religious secondary school in southern Israel, where approximately half of the students and teacher...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a professional development (PD) program on preschool teacher assistants’ (TAs) attitudes toward multilingualism and self-efficacy in working with linguistically and culturally diverse children (LCDC) and their parents. The study was conducted in a northern peripheral city in Israel that reflects t...

Ecological Perspectives in Early Language Education: Parent, Teacher, Peer, and Child Agency in Interaction This book presents ecological perspectives towards early language education that conceptualize the phenomenon of interactions between child language-based agency, teachers’ agency, peers’ agency and parents' agency, consequently furthering i...

When I see them - I think it’s me:” Multilingual teaching staff’s agency enactment in a linguistically and culturally diverse classroom Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore why and how multilingual, multicultural teaching staff as collective agents implement language education policy in the multilingual classroom. We focused on how the...

This book presents ecological perspectives towards early language education that conceptualise the phenomenon of interactions between child language-based agency, teachers' agency, and parents' agency, consequently furthering insights into the lives of young children growing up in multilingual homes. Drawing on empirical research evidence, the book...

The study aimed to take a zoom on differences between young children in the way they express their language-based agency in learning languages in a preschool bilingual classroom. Because agency is a sociocultural and contextually embedded phenomenon and children enact it through interaction with proximal and distant environmental systems, we aspire...

The aim of this study was to explore how team is built and how it works as a type of social interaction in preschool bilingual education. More specifically, we asked how teachers of the societally dominant language (Hebrew) and heritage language (Russian) to 3-4-year-olds make decisions about their teamwork and what makes this work successful in th...

Language-Conducive Strategies in Young Learners’ Constructivist Hebrew Classrooms Margalit Kavenstock and Mila Schwartz Abstract This chapter is aimed to analyze teachers' language-conducive strategies implemented by four teachers of Hebrew in three early childhood settings in New York City. The chapter describes the current status of Hebrew in Jew...

When CLIL concerns young learners, additional language might be used as a vehicle to teach part of the curriculum that pre-school would address in any case. Consequently, children are encouraged to use this language productively. However, to progress towards a productive language use, children go through several stages when learning L2 (e.g., Engli...

Educators and researchers increasingly recognise the impact of teachers’ agency on language education policy enactment in their classrooms. The study is aimed to conduct cross-cultural comparisons of Israeli and Icelandic teachers regarding their agency towards linguistically and culturally diverse children in a preschool context. We conducted semi...

Despite increasing popularity of early heritage language (HL) education, the HL education system faces challenges, such as engaging young children and tailoring teachers’ pedagogical approaches. The aim of the study was to explore a particular pedagogy (“a trip to the enchanted wood”) that provides accessibility to HL, and to analyze children’s beh...

In several countries Russian is spoken by a considerable percentage of the population. The Russian language has been influenced by a number of different languages from throughout the world. As a result, it is crucial to look into how the first language (L1) of a family interacts with the language of the environmentin early life and how this affects...

Our study of Russian-Hebrew bilingual preschoolers’ metalinguistic awareness is based on the results of the definition test with 56 children. The results uncover six strategies to generate a definition of concrete nouns in two languages. The preschoolers preferred to how an object functions while explaining the word meaning in both languages. Refer...

This is the first international Handbook that offers a comprehensive overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. This conceptual introductory chapter starts by tracing the chronicle of recent developments in theorizing early language...

This paper sets out to investigate teachers as agents in Israel, comparing Israeli born teachers with those who had past immigration experiences, regarding their attitudes toward multilingual students, personal practical knowledge and classroom practices in this field. In this study, we applied linguistic ethnography to elicit attitudinal and perso...

The current study was part of a large project focusing on bilingual development in the preschool classroom context. Its aim was to theorize free play as a social and language learning activity that provides opportunities for young learners to move towards second language production. The role of free play for language development in general, and its...

The role of children as social agents in applied linguistics research has been mostly ignored to date. In this exploratory ethnographic study, we investigated how first-grade students experienced literacy acquisition in two Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew) simultaneously. We held dialogic conversations with seven children and observed their be...

The Russian language is confronted with a variety of other languages from around the world on the individual level. Russian is spoken by a large proportion of the population in some countries. As a result, it is necessary to investigate how the home / family or the first language (L1) interacts with the language of the environment in early childhoo...

Limited research to date has addressed the language socialisation of transnational children during global movement with their parents. The aim of this study was to explore the complexity of language socialisation for a transnational child experiencing a multilingual environment both at home and in preschool. This transnational English – and Spanish...

Limited research to date has addressed the language socialization of transnational children during global movement with their parents. The aim of this study was to explore the complexity of language socialization for a transnational child experiencing a multilingual environment both at home and in preschool. This transnational English-and Spanish-s...

This chapter provides a theorization of language-conducive strategies (Schwartz, 2018) as a pedagogical concept, combining several types of teacher support in early language education. A twofold classification of language-conducive strategies is proposed: didactic and management strategies. These strategies are designed to induce preschool children...

Drawing on two longitudinal case-studies, this study aimed to identify some salient characteristics of the agentic behaviour of two young emergent multilinguals in two different multilingual contexts: Luxembourg and Israel. Despite the fact that the studies were conducted independently, the two cases were analysed together owing to the similarities...

M. Шварц оТРАженИе оРГАнИЗАЦИИ ЛеКСИКонА В ТоЛКоВАнИЯХ РУССКИХ СЛоВ ПЯТИ-ШеСТИЛеТнИМИ БИЛИнГВАМИ В статье обсуждаются определения русских слов, полученные в результате эксперимента по методике формальных определений, проведенного с израильтянами, ивритрусскими билинг-вами пятишестилетнего возраста (61 ребенок). На основе семантического анализа 784...

Mila Schwartz 10 Strategies and practices of home language maintenance The more we know about micro-level features of the interaction between parent and child and their correlation with the successful acquisition of an otherwise unsupported minority language , the better we can give parents practical advice on factors which they have the power to m...

This paper investigates teachers as agents within their attitudes, and personal practical knowledge toward multilingual students and their classroom practices in Israel through comparison between teachers with past immigration experiences and Israeli native-born teachers. The study applied linguistic ethnography to elicit attitudinal and personal i...

EN This ethnographic study expands prior understanding of the intercultural encounter process by focusing on 29 Jewish and Arab children attending bilingual preschool and two preschool teachers during 16 class sessions. The findings shed light on a developmental stage at which the seeds of intercultural interaction begin to appear along the separat...

Drawing on two longitudinal case-studies, this study aimed to identify some salient characteristics of the agentic behaviour of two young emergent multilinguals in two different multilingual contexts: Luxembourg and Israel. Despite the fact that the studies were conducted independently, the two cases were analysed together owing to the similarities...

This is the first international and interdisciplinary handbook to offer a comprehensive and an in-depth overview of findings from contemporary research, theory, and practice in early childhood language education in various parts of the world and with different populations. The contributions by leading scholars and practitioners are structured to gi...

The objective of two-way language programs is to promote intergroup communicative competence and cultural awareness. The purpose of the study was to explore teachers' strategies implemented to create a language-conducive classroom context. To address this purpose, we used triangulation of data sources: weekly classroom observations, video recording...

The aim of this study was to explore patterns of children's agency enactment in second-language learning as reflected in their language learning and social interactions in a bilingual Arabic–Hebrew-speaking classroom. We examined the connection between these behaviour patterns and the children's L2 progress in the bilingual classroom. The study use...

The study presented here has three goals: : (1) to identify types of errors in the noun inflectional morphology in Russian as a heritage language among Russian-speaking adolescents in Israel (n=11), the United States (n=11), Finland (n=14), and Germany (n=9), (2) to compare errors in speech production between these groups , and (3) to investigate t...

The aim of this longitudinal ethnographic study was to explore how children's verbal and nonverbal behavior reflects their language awareness at a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew-speaking preschool in Israel. We adopted the perspective that children's L2 acquisition is situated within the social events and interactional practices of the classroom community...

The objective of two-way language programs is to promote intergroup communicative competence and cultural awareness. The purpose of the study was to explore teachers' strategies implemented to create a language-conducive classroom context. To address this purpose, we used triangulation of data sources: weekly classroom observations, video recording...

The aim of the current study was two-fold. It aimed (i) to examine how a multi-component task, as well as more specific executive function (EF) tasks, are related to a wide range of early literacy (phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, word writing) and emergent mathematical abilities; and (ii) to broaden our understanding of the similar...

In the current study we examined three questions. First: How does emergent bilingualism affect the development of metalinguistic awareness in kindergarten and first grade? We compared the changes in scores of tests of phonological awareness and morphological awareness from kindergarten to first grade, in two bilingual groups (Hebrew–Arabic and Arab...

This study was conducted within the context of bilingual Arabic- Hebrew medium preschools in Israel which were established to incorporate instruction in the native languages of both majority and minority children in the classroom. Bilingual education in various settings produces a wide variety of outcomes in terms of language proficiency, cultural...

Introduction to the Special Issue: "Early language development and education: Teachers, parents and children as agents"

Van Lier's (2004) concept of ecology of language learning is applicable to our focus on children's active engagement in bilingual preschool classroom activities, which are conducive to language learning. The aim of this study was to explore the nature of relationships between these activities and phases in L2 progress and to identify the activities...

In this chapter, I have chosen to write a conceptual introduction to this volume. The chapter starts with what I consider the general motivation for this volume followed by reasons for conceptualizing preschool bilingual education as a distinct research area. The chapter then provides the theoretical framework which underpins many of the studies pr...

In the context of peer interaction and L2 learning in the classroom, Blum-Kulka and Snow (2004) distinguished between two types of peers: novice L2 learners and L2 experts. The latter are at a more advanced stage of competence and can play the role of L2 ‘teachers’. Through their interaction with L2 experts, the novices develop linguistic, cultural...

Children's formal literacy instruction at school differs from their literacy exposure in the home context. At school, literacy is acquired through structured activities, whereas at home, the process may be supported in the informal context of spontaneous daily parentchild communications and games aimed primarily to provide emotional care and harmo...

This volume provides an up-to-date collection of key aspects related to current preschool bilingual education research from a socio-linguistic perspective. Our focus is on preschool bilingual education in multilingual Europe, which is characterized by diverse language models and children's linguistic backgrounds. The book explores the contemporary...

In this study, we asked how co-teachers in a bilingual preschool overcome challenges in the relationship-building stage, rethink their language education ideology, and coordinate language instruction strategies, and acknowledge their cultural and professional background. The participants in the study were two teachers: one Hebrew-speaking and one A...

Abstract We tested children attending bilingual Hebrew-Arabic kindergartens on a fast mapping task. These early sequential bilinguals included those with Hebrew as their home language (L1) and those with Arabic as L1. They were compared to monolingual Hebrew and Arabic speakers. The children saw pictures of unfamiliar objects and were taught pseudo...

Research Questions: 1- Which teaching strategies are conducive to L2 use? 2- Which classroom-related factors are conducive to the children’s willingness to use L2 (Arabic)?

In this study, we explored how major theoretical principles and concepts in the mediation strategies of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory are realized in an Arabic−Hebrew-using preschool in Israel. The aim of this study was to examine how teachers encourage children to use their L2 during teacher−child conversations. In particular, as a response to r...

https://benjamins.com/catalog/bct.89 This book represents concurrent attempts of multiple researchers to address the issue of cross-linguistic transfer in literacy. It includes broad spectrum of languages and reflects a new generation of conceptualizations of cross-linguistic transfer, offering a different level of complexity by studying children...

The present study aims to examine the linguistic and orthographic proximity hypothesis in new script acquisition by comparing the performance of Circassian L1 speaking children who are emerging quadri-literates with Hebrew L1 speaking children who are emerging biliterates. Tests in decoding and spelling various English target conventions were condu...

This book represents concurrent attempts of multiple researchers to address the issue of cross-linguistic transfer in literacy. It includes broad spectrum of languages and reflects a new generation of conceptualizations of cross-linguistic transfer, offering a different level of complexity by studying children who are trilingual and even learning a...

The study aimed to examine the pedagogical implications of the linguistic and orthographic proximity hypothesis. This hypothesis claims that the similarities and differences between first and additional languages and scripts help or hinder the acquisition of literacy in the novel language. In this study we examined the impact of Arabic language and...

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of dual language development and cross-linguistic influence on morphological awareness in young bilinguals' first language (L1) and second language (L2). We examined whether (a) the bilingual children (L1/L2 Arabic and L1/L2 Hebrew) precede their monolingual Hebrew- or Arabic-spea...

The human mind is a marvelous device that effectively regulates mental activities and facilitates amendable cognitive behaviour across several domains such as attention, memory, and language processing. For multilinguals, the mind also represents and manages more than one language system—a mental exercise which may lead to cognitive benefits. Throu...

Language-focused listening to young children’s talk provides insight into their internal thinking mechanisms regarding language as they engage in language learning. The aim of this exploratory longitudinal study was to examine and analyze children’s meta-linguistic talk and its main characteristics in a bilingual Arabic–Hebrew-speaking preschool. T...

Bilingual preschool education is under researched compared with bilingual school education. There is also a lack of research on bilingual preschool teachers’ agency and how they negotiate between two languages in the classroom. We examined the language practices of five bilingual preschool teachers working within three different socio-linguistic se...

Educators and researchers increasingly recognize the impact of language policies on bilingual education. The present study examined the similarities and differences in how the teachers and principals in two different contexts, a Mandarin-English bilingual program in a Canadian kindergarten and elementary school and a Russian-Hebrew bilingual presch...

Language-focused listening to young children's talk provides insight into their internal thinking mechanisms regarding language as they engage in language learning. The aim of this exploratory longitudinal study was to examine and analyze children's meta-linguistic talk and its main characteristics in a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew-speaking preschool. T...

Language-focused listening to young children's talk provides insight into their internal thinking mechanisms regarding language as they engage in language learning. The aim of this exploratory longitudinal study was to examine and analyze children's meta-linguistic talk and its main characteristics in a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew-speaking preschool. T...

The aim of this exploratory study is to examine bilingual Russian–Hebrew-speaking children’s performance on the complex Case System in Russian. The speech of six early sequential bilinguals and three simultaneous bilinguals is analyzed for the quality and quantity of errors. Monolingual data came from two sources. The first source was the error rat...

Aim and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions The main goal of this study was to examine noun–adjective gender agreement in Russian by comparing bilingual children with diverse L2 backgrounds (English, Finnish, German, and Hebrew) with age-matched monolingual children and monolinguals one year younger. This comparison was made to investigate the in...

The focus of the present study was the trajectory of the acquisition of noun pluralization in Hebrew as a window into the development of inflectional morphology among early sequential Russian-Hebrew speaking bilinguals. Our participants were six early sequential bilingual children between 36 and 42 months of age at the beginning of the study, who a...

Aim and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The main goal of this study was to examine noun–adjective gender agreement in Russian by comparing bilingual children with diverse L2 backgrounds (English, Finnish, German, and Hebrew) with age-matched monolingual children and monolinguals one year younger. This comparison was made to investigate the i...

In this longitudinal study, we examined bilingual children’s acquisition of definiteness in Hebrew (L2). Hebrew distinguishes between definite and indefinite nouns by marking definiteness by article. We recorded the speech of nine bilingual Russian–Hebrew-speaking children ranging in age from three to four years old in monthly sessions over a perio...

The present study aims to examine the linguistic and orthographic proximity hypothesis in new script acquisition by comparing the performance of Circassian L1 speaking children who are emerging quadri-literates with Hebrew L1 speaking children who are emerging biliterates. Tests in decoding and spelling various English target conventions were cond...

The goal of this study was to investigate the language-teaching strategies used in a bilingual Arabic–Hebrew kindergarten in Israel. We used an ethnographic approach by applying a mixed methods design. The results demonstrate that the language-teaching strategy most frequently used by teachers was flexible bilingualism, through translanguaging that...

Taking into account the effect of diglossia in Arabic and its orthographic complexity, this study is aiming to investigate differences between Arabic-speaking (L1) and Hebrew-speaking (L1) parents' self-reports on their children's language practice at home within the framework of Family Language Policy. Additionally, we (the researchers) aim to exa...

Parents’ choices regarding bilingual education are not arbitrary. Parents have background motives, related to their family language and cultural policy, which drive them to integrate their child in a bilingual and bicultural environment. It is inevitable that this choice will have some impact on their child’s linguistic, cognitive and social develo...

A family faces various challenges in its attempt to bring up a bilingual or sometimes multilingual child. For example, there are identity conflicts, time pressure restraints in negotiating conflicting language demands and the negative effects of macro-level social processes such as state language policy. Yet, even in these difficult circumstances,...

Many educators and parents believe that successful multilingualism is a valuable resource for any society. This is not only because of its role in the successful integration of migrants, but also because of its cognitive potential and the opportunity that it provides to enrich the society’s economic, intellectual and cultural life. The main aim of...