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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 742

Part of Session 146: Language at school in urban European settings (Other abstracts in this session)

Sweden: Linguistic interaction in multilingual preschools – a preparation for educational knowledge?

Authors: Axelsson, Monica
Submitted by: Axelsson, Monica (Stockholm University Sweden, Sweden)

A child’s learning and linguistic development within the family starts in situations where language is rooted in an immediate context of time, space or situation. Bernstein (1975) has characterized this as ’commonsense’ knowledge as opposed to the more specialized educational knowledge learned in school. Bruner (1970) noted that middle class children learned to use language without dependence upon shared percepts or actions, solely relying on the language of the message. In audio recordings of a large number of children interacting with their mothers at home Wells (1986) got similar results for class, as did Hasan (1988). Painter (1999) added a developmental perspective in the study of her son’s learning through language. In multilingual preschools language is an additional factor since many children with another mother tongue than Swedish enter preschool around one year of age and spend up to 40 hours there every week. This leaves the development of both situation-dependent and situation-independent Swedish very much to the preschool environment.

My research questions are, i) what linguistic features characterize the discourse in a multilingual urban preschool in Sweden? ii) to what extent does situation-independent language appear in preschool and how is it used by multilingual preschool children? Children’s language use will be analyzed using systemic functional linguistics especially focusing the appearance of situation-independent language.

In my presentation I aim at describing the use of different semantic choices made by preschool teachers and five year old multilingual children, based on data collected in preschools with a majority of multilingual children (Axelsson, 2005 and 2010), using video and audio recordings as well as digital photographs. Analyses comparing data from five preschools show that the use of situation-independent language coincides with topic of interaction, preschool teachers’ language use and type of literacy.

References:

Axelsson, M. (2005). Stärkta trådar – flerspråkiga barn och elever utvecklar språk, litteracitet och kunskap.  Stockholms stad: Språkforskningsinstitutet.

Axelsson, M. (2010). Språk- och kunskapsutveckling går hand i hand. In M. Axelsson (ed.) Många trådar in i ämnet – genrepedagogiskt arbete i Knutbyskolan. Stockholms stad: Utbildningsförvaltningen, Språkforskningsinstitutet.

Bernstein, B. (1975). Class, codes and control, Vol.3: Towards a theory of educational transmissions. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Bruner, J. (1970). Poverty and childhood. Detroit: Merril-Palmer.

Hasan, R. (1988), Language in the processes of socialisation: home and school. In L. Gerot, J. Oldenburg and T. Van Leeuwen (eds) Language and socialisation: home and school: Proceedings from the working conference on language in education, Macquarie University 17-21 November 1986, 36-96.

Painter, C. (1999). Learning through language in early childhood. London: Continuum.

Wells, G. (1986). The meaning makers: children learning language and using language to learn. London: Hodder and Stoughton.