The use of Spanish by a monolingual kindergarten teacher to support English language learners

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. This article reports on a case study of a kindergarten, monolingual teacher and how she used Spanish, the home language of her Latino/a students who are English language learners (ELLs), in the classroom. The article focuses on how the teacher develops and uses her emerging knowledge of Spanish to scaffold students\u27 learning, specifically when emphasizing instruction, reinforcing key concepts, checking comprehension, managing the classroom, relating to students and providing encouragement. This study provides evidence that monolingual teachers can develop skills to use students\u27 home languages as an effective literacy teaching tool