Breaking Barriers with Collaborative Language Practices in a Multiethnic Classroom: A Potential Model for Immigrant¹ Children

Abstract

Children’s spontaneous peer-group interactions were video-recorded and analyzed using techniques of ethnography and talk-in interaction. The examples illustrate how the children socialize novices to language practices and other culturally appropriate practices used in their peer-group communities. The children’s translation work is a discursive practice but it has material outcomes for their novice peers, such as creating a venue for them to access concrete learning opportunities.

Notes

²All of the teachers’ and children’s names are pseudoynms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Şeyda Deniz Tarım

Şeyda Deniz Tarım is Reseacher and Director of Education at Üstün Dökmen Life Long Learning and Development Research Academy in Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include language socialization in immigrant communities and children’s peer groups in early childhood settings using ethnography and talk-in-interaction. Her research mainly focuses on how children’s use language and co-consruct their peer group social organization and identities. Her work has appeared in journals and edited books including First Language and Sociological Studies of Children and Youth (V15).