Confident educators help all children develop strong language skills. 

The Language Learning Project (LLP) is one of the Fresno Starting Smart and Strong flagship programs. The LLP is a professional development approach for providers, born in Fresno, that is now in use nationwide. The approach has deeply impacted the Fresno community and its early childhood educators while gaining local, state, and national recognition. In alignment with the fact that young children have great capacity to learn more than one language, the LLP offers strategies and support to early childhood educators and a set of innovative practices that support the education of young dual language learners. 

Language Learning Project logo

The project is based around Personalized Oral Language(s) Learning (POLL) strategies, which are concrete approaches that support language learning in all environments for children birth to five years of age. The POLL strategies were developed by nationally renowned early childhood experts Dr. Linda Espinosa, Dr. Carola Oliva-Olson, and Elizabeth Magruder.

To guide other communities in building a stronger foundation for young dual language learners, we have developed an in-depth website that contains a collection of resources available for communities to use in training, implementing, and supporting the implementation of POLL strategies. 

Visit our Language Learning Project page to find a toolkit for implementing the project, videos, and more resources for educators.


Partners

The Language Learning Project’s origins are in a cross-agency collaborative between Fresno Unified Early Learning Department, Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission Head Start/ Early Head Start, and the local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (Central Valley Children’s Services Network). Funding for this project was provided by the Dual Language Learners Professional Development Grant, California Department of Education, Early Learning and Care Division from the Child Care and Development Fund.

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