Martín and the pink crayon: peer language socialization in a kindergarten bilingual classroom

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the interactional dynamics of one bilingual, two-way immersion classroom where children came from diverse linguistic, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Based on an ethnographic discourse analytic study of one kindergarten TWI classroom, I analyze interactional data using participant frameworks as the unit of analysis and develop a linguistic analysis from a language socialization lens. Findings illustrate the ways that children’s talk and communicative behaviors act as peer socializing processes as children move in and out of various participatory roles in conversation. By virtue of their intentional spatial positioning around communal tables, students are socializing each other as participants into a bilingual learning community, even when they are silent participants or overhearers. I argue that this framework is a productive lens through which to analyze bilingual multiparty conversations in a way that does not privilege linguistic codes as a basis for analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual education
• classroom discourse
• peer language socialization
• participation
• second language acquisition
• two-way Immersion

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Betsy Rymes for her encouragement and feedback in early versions of this paper. Many thanks to the children in this classroom, who allowed me to listen in and partake in their conversations - it was a joy to listen to their voices again during data analysis. Finally, my appreciation for the feedback from the anonymous reviewers as well as the editors of this special issue, Laura and Deb.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The name of the school and all individuals associated with it are pseudonyms.

2 Data comes from National Center for Education Statistics and the school districts’ website; exact references kept anonymous to protect the identity of the school.

3 An Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, is an official document created for students with special learning needs in the United States.

 

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sofía E. Chaparro

Sofía E. Chaparro is a former elementary bilingual teacher and currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches in the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education program at the School of Education and Human Development.