Teaching Chinese in Early Childhood Classrooms: A Qualitative Multiple-Case Study of Teachers’ Practices, Challenges, and Professional Learning

Abstract

Chinese programs for young children are expanding across immersion schools, multilingual preschools, community language centers, and enrichment programs. However, the quality of early language provision depends less on the amount of vocabulary presented than on how teachers transform Chinese into meaningful interaction, play, relationships, and culturally responsive participation. This qualitative multiple-case study examines how early childhood teachers understand the goals of Chinese instruction, organize learning experiences, respond to linguistic diversity, negotiate family expectations, and identify professional learning needs. The study design uses purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, teacher artifacts, and reflexive thematic analysis. Sample findings are organized into five themes: prioritizing communicative confidence before formal accuracy; embedding Chinese in play, routines, movement, and multimodal meaning-making; using children’s full linguistic repertoires strategically; negotiating tensions involving tones, Chinese characters, curriculum pacing, and readiness; and constructing professional knowledge through collaborative planning and reflective inquiry. The interpretation suggests that effective early childhood Chinese teaching is relational, embodied, context-sensitive, and developmentally appropriate. Teachers require both Chinese-specific pedagogical knowledge and early childhood expertise, particularly in oral interaction, play-based curriculum design, multilingual scaffolding, formative assessment, and family partnership. The article contributes a practice-oriented framework for understanding Chinese teaching as an ecological process linking teacher beliefs, classroom interaction, institutional policy, and home language environments. Implications are offered for teacher education, preschool leadership, curriculum design, and future qualitative research.