Teacher and peer interaction in lower age novice-newcomer’s L2 learning and socialisation

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive variables (Total = 428).

	Value	Label	N of initiated action
Observation period	1,00	December	50
	2,00	January	179
	3,00	February and March	199
Interaction Initiator	1,00	Educators	175
	2,00	Focus child	163
	3,00	Peer boy	22
	4,00	Peer girl	68
The length of language use	1	No vocal communication	128
	2	Units of sound^a	5
	3	word	108
	4	Phrase	10
	5	Sentence	147
The addressee of initiated action	1	Teacher 1	71
	2	Teacher 2	84
	3	Nurse	38
	4	Focus child	109
	5	Peer boy	48
	6	Peer girl	24
	7	Other peers	14
	8	No clear addressee	40

^a Units of sound here is a phoneme or a composition of phonemes which makes a meaningless nonce word. For example, ‘pi:tu’ pronounced by the focus child is coded as units of sound rather than a meaningful word.

Figure 1. Ecological process of language learning.

Table 2. Crosstabulation for initiator’s interaction types.

			Initiator of interaction				Total
			Educators	Focus child	Peer boy	Peer girl
Action type	Verbal communication	Count	125	101	13	61	300
		% within Action Type	41,7%	33,7%	4,3%	20,3%
		% within Initiator^a	71,4%	62,0%	59,1%	89,7%
		% of Total	29,2%	23,6%	3,0%	14,3%	70,1%
	Eye-gaze	Count	1	15	3	3	22
		% within Action Type	4,5%	68,2%	13,6%	13,6%
		% within Initiator	0,6%	9,2%	13,6%	4,4%
		% of Total	0,2%	3,5%	0,7%	0,7%	5,1%
	Gesture	Count	108	99	6	16	229
		% within Action Type	47,2%	43,2%	2,6%	7,0%
		% within Initiator	61,7%	60,7%	27,3%	23,5%
		% of Total	25,2%	23,1%	1,4%	3,7%	53,5%
	Touch	Count	38	2	0	2	42
		% within Action Type	90,5%	4,8%	0,0%	4,8%
		% within Initiator	21,7%	1,2%	0,0%	2,9%
		% of Total	8,9%	0,5%	0,0%	0,5%	9,8%
Total		Count	175	163	22	68	428
		% of Total	40,9%	38,1%	5,1%	15,9%	100,0%

^a When labelling the video-recordings, the initiated action is either substantiated by one action type (verbal, eye-gaze, gesture or touch) or by the combination of several action types. Consequently, the action initiated by the initiator is considered as a question with multiple choices. For example, in the column of the focus child-initiated actions, the total of his initiated actions counts 163, among them verbal communication represents 62% (101/163), eye-gaze, gesture and touch represent respectively 9.2% (15/163), 60.7% (99/163) and 1.2% (2/163).

Figure 2. Illustration of language learning ecology.

Table

1	Teacher 1:	((Pointing at the picture on the smoothie bag)) Omenoita.
		Apple.
2	Focus child:	((point at the same picture)) Omena?
		Apple?
3	Teacher 1:	((pointing at another picture on the smoothie bag)) Mangoa?
		Mango?
4	Focus child:	((pointing and face direction and eye-gaze on Teacher 1)) Omena? ((try to repeat the word Mango, but unsuccessfully))
		Apple?
5	Teacher 1:	((nodding and repeat again for the focus child)) Mango? Joo.
		Mango? Yes.
6	Focus child:	(inaudible) (1) ((peeping the nurse sitting next to Teacher 1))
7	Teacher 1:	((to the nurse)) (1) vaikeita(2).
		difficult
8	Nurse:	((face direction to the focus child and Teacher 1))(5) (inaudible) jo paljon.
		already a lot.
9	Focus child:	((face direction and eye-gaze on the nurse)).
10	Teacher 1:	((face direction and eye-gaze to the nurse and nodding)) Joo, hyvä (inaudible)
		Yes, good
11	Peer girl:	((turning her dinking bottle)) (4) jopa eri värejä.
		Even different colours.

Table

1.	Peer girl:	((face direction to Teacher 1 and nurse)) Mun kotona on tosi ihana vauva. Se on tosi söpö.
		In my home there is a very lovely baby. It is very cute.
2.	Teacher 1:	((listening and smiling to the nurse))
3.	Nurse:	((facing the girl and nodding)) yym::
		em::
4.	Peer girl:	() on tosi ihana vauva.
		Is very lovely baby.
5.	Teacher1:	((facing and smiling to the girl)) yym:
		em:
6.	Nurse:	((facing and smiling to the girl))
7.	Focus child:	((pointing at the peer girl’s fruit pulp)) mitä (.) tämä on.
		What (.) this is.
8.	Peer girl:	mina (.) mi-
		I (.) I-
9.	Focus child:	((face direction to Teacher 1))
10.	Teacher 1:	((approaching her head)) omena?
		apple?
11.	Focus child:	((to repeat)) omena.
		apple.
12.	Focus child:	((pointing at another thing and face direction to Teacher 1))
13.	Teacher 1:	((naming it))

Figure 3. Compare means of the addressees by initiator of interactions and period.

Table

1	Focus child:	((pointing))Smoothia? Kahvia?
		Smoothie? Coffee?
2	Teacher 1:	((pointing)) Mikä tämä on.
		What this is.
3	Focus child:	ni:::
4	Teacher 1:	Onko mandariinia?
		Is it mandarin?
5	Focus child:	Mandariini.
		Mandarin.
6	Teacher 1:	Joo:
		Yes:
7	Focus child:	Smoothia.
		Smoothie.
8	Teacher 1:	Smoothie?
		Smoothie?
9	Focus child:	en:?
10	Teacher 1:	((open the smoothie bag)) Noin.
		Okey.
11	Focus child:	((drink smoothie)) No:in:(3) Omena? Leipä?((pointing the food and peeping Teacher 1))
		O:key: (3) Apple? Bread?
12	Teacher 1:	Joo?
		Yes?
13	Focus child:	Joo?
		Yes?

Table

1	Focus child:	((point at Teacher 1 standing behind the peer boy and face direction to the nurse)) Kahvia?
		Coffee?
2	Nurse:	((coughing before face direction to the focus child waiting for her reaction)) Kahvia?
		Coffee?
3	Focus child:	((point at Teacher 1 and face direction to the nurse)) Juo kahvia?
		Drink coffee?
4	Nurse:	((nodding to the focus child))
5	Focus child:	((face direction and point to Teacher 1)) Juo kahvia? Juo kahvia? Juo kahvia.
		Drink coffee? Drink coffee? Drink coffee.
6	Nurse:	((smiling to Teacher 1 and nodding to the focus child))
7	Focus child:	(6) Kahvia. Juo kahvia. ((peeping the nurse))
		Coffee. Drink coffee.
8	Nurse:	((avoid eye-gaze with the focus child))
9	Focus child:	kahvia. kahvia. kahvia. kahvia. kahvia.
		Coffee. coffee. coffee. coffee. coffee.
10	Peer boy:	((turn his head for face direction format to Teacher 1))
11	Nurse:	en:hen:((smiling to the focus child)) okey.((stand up, smiling and leave))
12	Focus child:	((smiling))
13	Peer boy:	((face direction and eye-gaze to the focus child)) Juo kahvia.
		Drink coffee.
14	Focus child:	Juo kahvia.((leave his chair))
		Drink coffee.
15	Peer boy:	((eye-gaze to the girl sitting in face and smiling)) Juo kahvia.
		Drink coffee.
16	Girl:	((smiling)) ei vielä juo kahvia:
		Don’t drink coffee yet:

Table

(5) :	numbers in single parentheses represent pauses in seconds
(.) :	micropause, i.e. shorter than (0.5)
() :	inaudible word
(( )) :	comments of the transcriber
? :	rising terminal intonation
. :	falling terminal intonation
: :	prolonged syllable
[ :	demarcates overlapping utterances
Coffee :	translation to English
Kahvia:	sounds marked by emphatic stress