‘How do you say it in Arabic, in Hebrew, in English?’ Towards a better understanding of children’s agentic behaviour in novel language learning

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to explore patterns of children’s agency enactment in second-language learning as reflected in their language learning and social interactions in a bilingual Arabic–Hebrew-speaking classroom. We examined the connection between these behaviour patterns and the children’s L2 progress in the bilingual classroom. The study used purposive sampling to select five information-rich cases that were representative of the bilingual classroom population. We performed two year-long ethnographic observations of the children whom we chose to participate in the study and collected testimonies from their parents and teachers to enhance credibility. The analysis revealed the following three patterns of language-based agentic behaviour: enthusiastic behaviour; unwilling behaviour, and fluctuating behaviour. The enthusiastic pattern was easy to observe because two children, who were identified as proactive L2 learners, tended to integrate socially with native L2-speaking peers and made considerable progress in L2. In our analysis of the unwilling and fluctuating patterns, we relied more on triangulating our observations with the teachers’ and parents’ input. An implication of this study for educators is the importance of thinking about how to increase enthusiasm for L2 learning among children who either show reluctance or lack self-confidence in L2 use in peer communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Language-based agentic behaviour
• language learning
• social interaction
• progress in L2
• preschool bilingual education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The aim of language-conducive strategies is ‘to enhance children’s willingness to communicate’ in a novel language (Schwartz 2018, 16). These strategies can be viewed as a component of a broader concept, a ‘language-conducive context’, such as ‘classroom conditions that allow language learning by means of diverse teaching strategies, language-learning activities, as well as the physical and social environment’ (Schwartz, Deeb, and Dubiner, in press, 5).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Kindermissionswerk ‘Die Sternsinger’ e.V. and Abrahamszelt e.V. through Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel [Grant No. D 17 2321 001/1] and The MOFET Institute, the Israeli National Inter-Collegial Center for the research and development of programs in teacher education and teaching in the colleges.