Translanguaging for varying discourse functions in sociodramatic play: an exploratory multiple case study of young emergent bilinguals

Abstract

ABSTRACT This exploratory multiple case study investigated how preschool-age, Spanish-English emergent bilingual (EB) children with diverse language profiles leverage their discursive resources to engage with peers and teachers in sociodramatic play (SDP) interactions. Data were collected over the course of one academic year, including weekly video recordings of child-peer and child–teacher interactions in SDP activity. A dynamic conceptualization of bilingualism and a community of practice perspective guided our cross-case analysis of three EBs, leading to the identification of three themes characterizing children’s oral discourse functions – narrating action/events, requesting/inviting, and asserting position – and varying languaging patterns in SDP. Sample excerpts illustrate the ways in which children assembled and orchestrated fluid and agentive translingual practices to extend, elicit, and justify play ideas, as well as to bridge communication with peers.