The present study investigated whether the bidirectional cross-lagged paths between teacher--child language interactions and receptive vocabulary would be significantly different between English language learner (ELL) and non-ELL children. The FACES 2009 cohort was used to address the research goals. Cross-lagged analysis was conducted with the individual paths tested to compare across three groups of children: non-ELLs, ELLs with limited English proficiency, and ELLs with English proficiency. Results showed that Time 1 teacher-child language interactions significantly predicted Time 2 receptive vocabulary, but not vice versa. When equality constraints were placed on the specific paths, differences and similarities were found among the three groups of children. Future research directions and study implications are discussed.