Teacher–child interactions are an integral factor influencing the quality of early childhood education, and multilingualism is increasingly prevalent in many contexts. In the multilingual society of Singapore this is particularly relevant because early childhood classrooms follow a bilingual policy and include the teaching and learning of Mother Tongue languages. To evaluate what constitutes quality for preschool language teaching in this multilingual context, the Mother Tongue Adapted Coding Scheme (MACS) was developed to examine teacher–child interactions during blocks of Mother Tongue language lessons. The comprehensive observational rating scheme for language learning included four domains: language input, language output, varied teaching strategies, and English use for teaching Mother Tongue language. This rating scheme was applied to fifty-one classrooms where teachers were videotaped while they conducted Chinese, Malay, or Tamil language lessons. Within the observed classrooms, four hundred and ninety-one children were assessed on their Mother Tongue language learning over three years for receptive vocabulary, reading, and morphological awareness. Overall interrater reliability on the MACS was high across language classrooms (K > 0.72). Correlation and exploratory factor analyses indicated a main factor for the language input and output domains, and separate factors for English language use. Teachers’ factor scores were found unrelated to their scores on the CLASS. Higher factor scores on input/output quality were correlated with having more high progress learners (compared to peers) for receptive vocabulary, but less high progress learners for reading. Implications for future applications and adaptations of the MACS are discussed in light of the use of rating tools to examine and better understand the constituents of ECE quality within multilingual contexts.

师生互动是影响幼儿教育质量的一个不可或缺的因素，在多种情况下，使用多种语言的现象越来越普遍。在新加坡的多语种社会中，这尤其重要，因为幼儿教室遵循双语政策，并包括母语教学。为了评估在这种多语种环境下学前语言教学的质量，开发了母语适应编码方案（MACS），以检查母语课程中老师与孩子之间的互动。用于语言学习的综合观察评分方案包括四个领域：语言输入，语言输出，不同的教学策略以及英语用于母语教学。该评分方案适用于五十一间教室，在教室里进行汉语，马来语或泰米尔语教学的学生被录像了。在观察到的教室中，对491名儿童进行了为期三年的母语学习评估，以评估他们的接受词汇，阅读和形态意识。在各个语言教室中，MACS的整体界面可靠性很高（K> 0.72）。相关性和探索性因素分析表明，语言输入和输出域是主要因素，而英语使用则是单独因素。发现教师的因子得分与他们在CLASS上的得分无关。输入/输出质量的要素得分越高，与接受词汇量越高（与同龄人相比）的学习者就越多，但是学习进度较慢的学习者较少。鉴于使用评级工具来检查和更好地理解多语言环境下ECE质量的组成部分，讨论了MACS未来应用和改编的含义。