Multilingual Preschool Research Articles

Names y nombres: Names as gateways to biliteracy in multilingual early childhood classrooms

This paper describes name-related literacy practices in a multilingual preschool classroom and their implications for emergent biliteracy. We draw on a translingual framework to understand children’s name-writing activities and how bilingual children’s early literacy interacts with, and at times disrupts, the written conventions of named languages. Drawing on fieldnotes, observations, and artifacts from a preschool classroom serving Spanish-English bilingual children, we examined how children and teachers used names as resources for early literacy learning. We found that names are (potential) gateways to letter-sound relationships across languages, that names teach that some features of writing are shared across languages and some are different, and finally that names differ from other kinds of words children encounter across languages. We discuss what those instances prompt us to (re)consider about name-related teaching and emergent biliteracy.

Supporting language diversities through story circles

This current study shows the range of culturally-shaped, storytelling patterns present in three multicultural, multilingual preschool classrooms serving children from families with lower socioeconomic status in the U.S. Stories were collected in the context of a small group, child-led storytelling activity called story circles. Results show that story circles encourage diverse story forms and topics that reflect interdependent conceptions of self in young learners. In their stories, young children demonstrate the early emerging potential for cultivating linguistic and cultural dexterity in early childhood by surfacing and centering multiple meaning-making patterns in the classroom, rather than solely topic-centered, linear, temporal stories that predominate in U.S. schools.

Exploring Lexical Biases of Multilingual Preschool Children in the Philippines

Exploring Lexical Biases of Multilingual Preschool Children in the Philippines

Co-constructing devices in narrative sequences of multilingual preschool children

Abstract The following paper aims at analysing co-constructing devices used in adult-child narrative interaction both in the first and in the second language. In order to build a “common ground” for communication and comprehension, adult speakers often need to rely on supporting strategies that provide the child with narrative, grammatical and lexical help. When investigating speakers in multilingual settings, these devices become even more crucial. The present study is based on a corpus which contains data from six multilingual children at preschool age from the Ladin valleys in South Tyrol. The analysis outlines both the adults’ devices used to support the child as well as the children’s self-adopted strategies to enable the interaction to be performed. As far as the adult part is concerned, the focus is put on initiating, replying and expanding devices. Children’s devices, instead, are mainly influenced by the multilingual setting they are involved in. In this sense code-mixing and code-switching phenomena emerge as main strategies.

Such tiny signs on a piece of paper. Engagement with language and literacy in a multilingual preschool class

Drawing on recent literacy research that foregrounds affect and space, we trace the creation of an early literacy learning space as it emerges through a group conversation between a preschool class teacher and five multilingual children at age 5–6. Our analysis is driven by a fascination of the bodily intensity and emotional energies that arose during the activity, in which the children were to tell each other about a card on which they had drawn a king and asked their parents to write the word ‘king’ in the languages spoken at home. In this article, we ask how such small signs on a piece of paper can have such a big appeal to children and pave the way for a lot of metalanguaging. Our analysis points to a need for an expansion of a common gaze at the sign that goes beyond its communicative and referential meaning and directs attention to its aesthetic and subjective appeal as well as its intersubjective potential. Such a perspective pushes us to deepen our understanding of early literacy, acknowledging children’s affective and reflective paths leading to literacy. It also prompts us to broaden the scope of ‘the metalinguistic’ to embrace the ways it is shaped in interaction and contributes to shared experiences and involvements.

Touch and translanguaging in a multilingual early childhood education setting

Many children grow up in multilingual communities characterised by linguistic heterogeneity and semiotic and cultural complexity. Translanguaging theory has provided a perspective attuned to communication and education in multilingual settings. However, translanguaging pedagogies have not yet had a broad uptake in early educational settings. The recent interest in embodiment within translanguaging studies and the study of touch combinedly provide a potential perspective for early childhood education. This study examines the role of touch in a multilingual preschool featuring 2-year-olds. The results point to two key functions for touch. One is that touch creates a shared experiential ground where languages can be learned. The other function is that touch allows children to sensorially explore and learn multicultural experiences from the diverse cultural and linguistic systems available. Based on the results, the role of touch in early childhood translanguaging is discussed as a way forward for translanguaging pedagogies for creating both equitable and diverse educational opportunities for children in multicultural and multilingual communities.

How pedagogical relations in early years settings are reconfigured by interactive touchscreens

AbstractWhile interactive touchscreens are currently entering into educational practice, little is known about what this means for learning in early childhood and, in particular, how touchscreens shape action and communication. In this paper, we examine the interactions of 2‐year‐olds and their teachers in a multilingual preschool in Sweden. We analyse the communicative environment between the children, teachers and shared touchscreens and books in the context of reading. A mixed‐methods analysis was used, taking a concept of action that includes both verbal, non‐verbal utterances and digital touch. The analysis shows a reconfiguration to the interactional dynamic where children perform comparable amounts of actions in sessions with the touchscreen and book reading but less talk during the touchscreen sessions. However, while talking less, children display other types of communicative actions. We analyse the changing interactional dynamic that follows, its implications to learning and early childhood pedagogical practice and how interaction can be reconceptualised as cycles of communication and action in which educational scaffolding unfolds. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Touchscreens are a significant part of children's lives and educational curricula. There is considerable uncertainty on how touchscreens can be incorporated into early childhood education. Little is known about how educational social interaction changes with touchscreens such as iPads. What this paper adds A mixed methods multimodal analysis of the changing actions and dynamics of iPads as compared with bookreading. Children's patterns of communication change towards less talk and more bodily communication, while teachers’ actions remain somewhat similar. Touch actions change the dynamics of interaction, can alter the pedagogical situation and bring a reconceptualisation towards a cyclical and embodied view of interaction. Implications for practice and/or policy New patterns of action may require a recalibration of educational practices. Teachers need to attend to new sets of touch actions that children use to communicate and act with as displays of knowledge. The use of touch screens should be seen as complementary to established practices of language and literacy training (such as book reading) rather than replacing them.

The concept of a common core of language proficiency in developing argumentative skills of bilingual European Schools students

The article presents the possibility of using the concept of a common core of language proficiency in developing the argumentative skills of the bilingual students of European Schools – an institution comprising a network of educational centres operating in the European Union, which provide multilingual and multicultural pre-school, primary and secondary education. In the study, conducted with the desk research method, the author analysed curriculum documents constituting the basis for the work of native and foreign language teachers in European Schools. The research shows that the curricula for different languages provide for similar general competences, but differ in terms of the philosophy of language education and the emphasis placed on particular content and teaching methods. This opens up the possibility of collaboration between teachers, who can increase the effectiveness of their work by building on skills common to all languages.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Lanza Tu Pelo”: Storytelling in a Transcultural, Translanguaging Dialogic Exchange

ABSTRACTIn this study, we examined story circles to understand how the small‐group activity supports and shapes the storytelling of young students in multicultural, multilingual preschool classrooms. Through a representative example, we show how language development unfolds in the context of a transcultural and translanguaging dialogic exchange of stories. We describe features of increasing linguistic complexity present in students’ storytelling as they established affinity‐affirming connections over ideas, shared ways of languaging, and shared ways of storytelling. By examining changes in one student’s storytelling in the context of a mixed‐language story circle group, we offer insights into both language development and features of the language ecology in which such changes are supported.

Implementing a multimodal online program for very young learners of Russian: Educators' perspective

CALL and MALL learning programs have been introduced by preschool teachers into their language classrooms (Sadykova, Kayumova, Khalitova, & Gimaletdinova, 2017; Segers & Verhoeven, 2003), despite reports saying that some of these programs have little educational value (Kazanci & Okan, 2009). This exploratory mixed-methods study aims at examining how Russian language kindergarten and preschool teachers integrate resources of a Russian language online school Live Fairytales™ (Zhivye skazki, 2017) and what design elements of this multimodal digital resource they find conducive or impediment to successful language acquisition by young learners. The data come from the reports of six teachers and survey responses of 18 educators who described and reflected on their experiences integrating resources of the Russian language online school. The data show that teachers made productive use of the digital resource by utilizing its multimodal presentation of the content, integrating interactive activities mostly in a whole-class format, and creating an engaging and enjoyable learning environment of play. Visual representation of material was reported to be the most valuable and necessary for accompanying audio input, introducing or practicing vocabulary, supporting listening comprehension, and overall motivating very young learners to stay on task. This study extends our understanding of what early childhood educators expect from quality digital resources and how they integrate them into educational programs that support language acquisition of bilingual and multilingual preschool children.

Technology supported early literacy learning in a multilingual community preschool

ABSTRACTThere is conflicting research on the value of using digital technology with young children. This study investigated how an app, used in conjunction with dual language picture books, can support the social, emotional, and literacy learning of bi/multilingual children. Twenty-one children used the app Talking Stickers at home and school for four weeks. The classroom was observed and the educators and parents were interviewed and surveyed. The findings indicated that children had enhanced opportunities to practice social, cognitive, and multi-lingual literacy skills, and bonds between home and school were strengthened. The research has implications for classroom practice and home-school programmes.

Parents in the playground, headscarves in the school and an inspector taken hostage: exercising agency and challenging dominant deficit discourses in a multilingual pre-school in France

ABSTRACTIn France, dominant monolingual discourses and teachers’ lack of knowledge about bilingualism and second language acquisition often result in ‘French only’ policies in classrooms including in pre-school classrooms where some emergent bilingual children speak a language other than the language of schooling and very little or no French. These policies can be detrimental to emergent bilingual children's language development, identity construction and overall long-term academic success. However, teachers in multilingual classrooms also have the power to exercise their agency to support children's bilingual language development and to implement practices which empower them and their families. This paper focuses on the ways in which one pre-school teacher working with three and four year old emergent bilingual children asserted her agency in the classroom despite institutional constraints. It investigates the beliefs, experiences, aspirations and knowledge which underpinned her sense of agency, the ways in which her actions empowered the children and parents and discusses the implications of the study for initial teacher education and continuous professional development.

Microgenesis of language creativity: Innovation, conformity and incongruence in children's language play

The study examines young children's engagement in language creativity, in this instance, spontaneous language play. It presents an analysis of peer group interaction in a multilingual preschool setting for 3- to 6-year-olds in Sweden. Combining video-ethnography and detailed interactional analysis, it explores the interactional organization, textual features, evaluative/affective stances and social functions that characterize language play. The theoretical perspective draws on interactional sociolinguistics and the Vygotskian (2004) notion that imagination and creativity are built on patterning (i.e., recognizability), innovative transformations and manipulations of prior materials, experiences and understandings. Here, creativity is shown to be a collective and normatively guided process: it is located in peer group collaborative performances, and involves peer group language, affective and aesthetic socialization. The analysis shows that children's spontaneous language play is characterized by an aesthetic in which that which is incongruent, unexpected and also recognizable is exploited and appreciated. It feeds on the ongoing tension between predictability (routine of culturally recognizable activities) and the novelty/improvisational character of in situ performance. Creative language use serves as a multifaceted locus for aesthetic, affective and normative (ideological) stance taking and mutual socialization. Through their performances, the children socialize each other into sensitivity to what kind of contributions constitute valued verbal genres of the peer group culture.

The work of interpreters to gain children’s perspectives within culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms

ABSTRACTWorking within culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms may present challenges for monolingual researchers wishing to gain children’s perspectives. Consequently, children who are not fluent speakers of the dominant language are under-represented in early years’ research. When linguistic boundaries exist, one recommended approach is working with an interpreter. However, little is reported about the effectiveness of this approach. For instance, how does the interpreter’s presence facilitate conversation and what interactional conditions help conversations flow? This paper reports on a video ethnography that explored young children’s perspectives on making friends in a multilingual preschool in Australia. Data collection involved video recording two conversational approaches: (i) semi-structured interviews with an interpreter and small groups of Japanese/English-speaking children (3–4 years) and (ii) impromptu conversations between the interpreter and children as they played. Sequential analysis, using conversation analysis, compares the two approaches. The second conversation is noticeably richer involving children having longer turns of talk and initiating topics of conversation. Findings show that while including interpreters who identify culturally and linguistically with children is important, attention to question design and an embedded research approach fosters sustained conversations. Actioning these findings can enhance research representation and participation for children from diverse communities.

Promoting the contributions of multilingual preschoolers

This study analyzed the use of Instructional Conversation (IC) in a multilingual preschool context. It sought to identify scaffolding strategies that promoted the contributions of multilingual children to IC. Twenty-seven hours of video data from seven classrooms were analyzed. Only three sequences emerged in which multilingual children actively contributed to the conversations. Educators in these sequences promoted children's contributions by: (a) using multimodal resources, (b) responding to the actions and words of the children, and (c) focusing on shared meaning-making or intersubjectivity. Translanguaging emerged as an important strategy to encourage the involvement of multilingual children in IC. Results provide invaluable exemplars of effective IC in preschool classrooms with multilingual children. The results demonstrate alternative ways of talking with young multilingual children and indicate a need for a pedagogical focus away from teacher-directed practices to joint activities and responsiveness to children's contributions.

Language policies in play: Learning ecologies in multilingual preschool interactions among peers and teachers

AbstractIn this study we argue that a focus on language learning ecologies, that is, situations for participation in various communicative practices, can shed light on the intricate processes through which minority children develop or are constrained from acquiring cultural and linguistic competencies (here, of a majority language). The analysis draws on a language socialization approach to examine the micro-level contexts of an immigrant child’s preschool interactions with peers and teachers, and the interplay between these and macro-level language and educational policies. It was found that, in contrast to institutional and curricular policy aspirations concerning the positive potentials of children’s play as a site associated with core learning affordances, the language learning ecology created in the multilingual peer group interactions was limited. Social relations in the peer group, the novice’s marginal social position, and the child’s rudimentary knowledge of the lingua franca, Swedish, precluded her from gaining access to shared peer play activities. The current study thus corroborates prior research showing that peer interactions in second language settings may pose a challenge to children who have not already achieved some competence in the majority language and that more support and interactions with the teachers can be useful.

Number words in ‘her’ language, dialogism and identity-work: the case of little Mariah

Based on an ethnographic study, we explore the potential of experimenting with multiple languages for number words as part of young children’s mathematical activity. Data from a preschool classroom activity on ‘number words in “other” languages’ exemplify a complex process of discursive identity-work and dialogism amongst children, parents, teacher, and researchers. The focus is on the case of little Mariah, a Pakistani immigrant girl in Greece, who experiences participation by sharing number knowledge in her mother tongue Urdu, and highlights how gendered, racial, or language-related discourses weave her learner identity in a multilingual preschool classroom.

‘Let's Talk about the Books’: The Complexity of Book Discussions in a Multilingual Preschool Classroom

This sociolinguistic study explores complexities of supporting preschool emergent bilinguals' communicative competence in multilingual classrooms. These complexities were highlighted in the author's qualitative research of a three-month school—home literacy project in one Head Start classroom. This article investigates what supported the children's communicative competence in retellings during book discussions, and the strategies and challenges the teacher faced in trying to enact whole-class discussions that would enhance the learning of all the emergent bilinguals in the setting. In findings centering on the book discussions, it was documented how the teacher created a context for the children to participate in story-retellings supported by her use of consistent, predictable structures in interaction that featured open-ended questions and uptake of children's responses. Features of the setting for biliteracy development privileged or circumscribed children's ability to draw on personal linguistic and peer resources. This represented an ongoing challenge in enhancing the learning of all the emergent bilinguals in this classroom.

Mealtimes in Swedish preschools: pedagogical opportunities for toddlers learning a new language

This paper reports on a study which explores how routine activities in preschool can support young multilingual children’s participation, communication and development of languages. The paper takes as its starting point the idea that young children’s development takes place through interaction and participation, including in routine activities. Empirical data of mealtimes was gathered in eight toddler groups in a Swedish city, and analysed as a context for learning. The mealtimes were video recorded and interpreted by using an interaction analytic approach which allowed multiple layers of mealtime interactions, all of which impact on the level of participation available to children, to be explored. A detailed analysis of activities and opportunities for communication provides an additional perspective for understanding participation and language learning in institutional practices. The findings show how language learning is situated as a communicative and participatory experience, and that common and shared topics are crucial for participation. Further, a shift in children’s participation status during interaction at mealtime is possible. An extended way of incorporating language teaching into multilingual preschool contexts is discussed.

Routine Trouble: How Preschool Children Participate in Multilingual Instruction

This paper examines the turn-by-turn organization of social actions during educational activities at a multilingual preschool in Sweden. Specifically, it focuses on instructional exchanges within t ...