Paradigmatic literacy features in children’s argumentation in peer talk

Abstract

Paradigmatic literacy features refer to ways of thinking and using language associated with academic-scientific discourse or written language. They are intimately bound up with education and appear in their emergent forms, mainly in conversations with adult partners. The present qualitative study investigates whether, and in which ways, paradigmatic literacy features emerge in pre-schoolers and fourth graders' argumentation in natural peer interactions. Segments of peer talk identified as argumentative discursive events served as our basic unit of analysis and were analysed from a discourse analytic perspective. The findings indicate that paradigmatic literacy features are embedded in peer talk at the macro level, in talk of an exploratory nature when children detach themselves from the ‘here and now’ and apply paradigmatic ways of thinking. Similarly, specific linguistic configurations related to academic discourse that manifest authority and degrees of distancing or abstractedness feature in children’s natural conversations as well. In both cases, paradigmatic literacy features fulfil social functions in peer talk. In light of the current findings, we discuss the potential contribution of peer talk to the wider context of dialogism, as well as the scope of literacy beyond the modality in question.