A recent meta-analysis by Jiang and colleagues explored the role of teachers’ language practices in fostering young children’s language development from preschool to third grade. Analysing 411 effect sizes from 104 unique studies published from 2001 to 2022, the authors investigated the relationship between teachers’ language practices and children’s expressive, receptive, and literacy skills.
The authors employed partial correlation as the effect size, allowing them to control for confounding variables and focus on the unique contribution of teacher language practices. Teacher language was categorized into quality and quantity (the number of words spoken). The quality aspect was further classified into three dimensions: interactive (e.g., responsiveness, feedback), linguistic (e.g., vocabulary diversity, grammatical complexity), and conceptual features (e.g., abstract discussions, decontextualized language).
The results revealed a significant positive association between the quality of teacher language and children’s language development (r = +.11). Furthermore, linguistic (r = +.13), interactive (r=+.10), and conceptual features (r=+.10) did not show significant difference. Interestingly, teacher language quantity showed no significant relationship with children’s overall language outcomes (r = +.15). The effects were stronger in classrooms with older children, more female students, and during language instruction (r=+.21). Notably, studies using systematic coding (r = .16) to assess teacher talk showed stronger associations than those using global ratings (r=+.07).
The findings highlight the importance of language quality over quantity in supporting children’s language development. Therefore, future policy should focus on enhancing high-quality language practices in teacher preparation, particularly for early childhood educators. The non-significant finding for language quantity requires cautious interpretation due to the limited number of effect sizes (no. of ES = 17).
Source (Open Access): Jiang, Y., Kaplan, B., & Ko-Wong, L. (2025). Does teacher talk matter too? A meta-analysis of partial correlations between teachers’ language practices and children’s language development from preschool to third grade. Review of Educational Research, 00346543251339131. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543251339131