While the demographic diversity of children served in early childhood classrooms continues to grow, world language learning opportunities for English-speaking preschoolers remain a rarity. Efforts to teach world languages in addition to English at the preschool level may be hampered by limited early childhood educator expertise, lack of programmatic fit, and uncertain expectations from participating families. This study used a foreign language exploratory (FLEX) program design for French language learning to examine whether these barriers could be overcome through a collaborative partnership between a world languages specialist, the classroom teacher, and the children’s families. The 10-week study involved twelve 3-year-old children from varied home language backgrounds attending an English-only preschool. Results showed that following the world language specialist’s weekly classroom visits, all participating children demonstrated some level of French language learning, and that learner engagement as a variable was strongly correlated with the child’s ability to acquire French, rather than variables of age, gender, or language used at home. Furthermore, while statistically significant differences in language learning beliefs existed between families who did and did not speak a language other than English at home prior to the study, no significant belief differences between these families were found following participation in the French program. Based on the results of this programmatic effort, the authors posit that a language ladder of supports wherein the childcare center and families form parallel sides of ongoing support while the WL specialist provides the rungs that unite both sides, may be a useful model of collaboration.

在幼儿教室中服务的儿童的人口多样性继续增长的同时，讲英语的学龄前儿童的世界语言学习机会仍然很少。在学龄前阶段教授除英语之外的世界语言的努力可能会受到有限的幼儿教育专业知识、缺乏计划匹配以及参与家庭的不确定期望的阻碍。本研究使用法语学习的外语探索 (FLEX) 计划设计来检验是否可以通过世界语言专家、课堂教师和儿童家庭之间的合作伙伴关系克服这些障碍。这项为期 10 周的研究涉及 12 名来自不同家庭语言背景的 3 岁儿童，他们在一所仅使用英语的幼儿园上学。结果表明，在世界语言专家每周一次的课堂访问之后，所有参与的儿童都表现出一定程度的法语学习，并且学习者参与度作为一个变量与儿童获得法语的能力密切相关，而不是年龄、性别或在家使用的语言。此外，虽然在研究之前在家里说和不说英语以外的语言的家庭之间在语言学习信念上存在统计学上的显着差异，但在参与法语计划后，这些家庭之间没有发现显着的信念差异。根据这项计划努力的结果，