Maria Sera, Ph.D., a professor in the Institute of Child Development (ICD) and Melissa Koenig, Ph.D., an associate professor in ICD, recently were featured in the University of Minnesota’s Driven to Discover campaign.

In their research, Sera and Koenig examine how children learn languages and whether the process is different when a child is learning their native tongue or a new language. Sera and Koenig also are exploring methods for teaching a new language to English speakers. An estimated 40 percent of students in U.S. schools will be non-native English speakers by 2030.

“Before we began this work, we thought that young children learning a second language would learn it quickly, and we saw it wasn’t as quickly as we thought,” Sera says.

Sera and Koenig’s findings could inform how educators approach teaching English language learners. “When educators have kids in their classrooms with a minority-language status, you don’t want to ask them to lose that in favor of just focusing on the dominant language,” Koenig says. “You want a curriculum that supports their strengths. Keeping their native language strong will only support their acquisition of English.”

Learn more about Sera and Koenig’s research.