Exploring Bilingual Talk and Writing Through Play in a Dual-Language Preschool Program

• In Event: Bilingual Writing Development and Practices Among Spanish-English Emergent Bilinguals in Pre-K to Fifth Grade

Abstract

This ethnographic, qualitative multiple case study of three young emergent bilinguals aimed to capture young, emergent bilingual children’s multi-layered and interwoven uses of oral and written dual language skills as resources for learning and playing. Specifically, the study investigated how preschool-age, English-Spanish emergent bilinguals in a dual language program use their developing language skills and sociolinguistic competence to engage in communicative and literacy events in the context of sociodramatic play. The study was guided by a constructivist view of literacy development, within a sociocultural framework. A constructivist perspective views learners as active participants in purposeful and authentic meaning-making (Rogoff, 1990). A sociocultural perspective foregrounds how children learn as they interact with and interpret their world within their culture and in their social group (Vygotsky 1978; Wertsch, 1998). The children’s environment and purpose/s provide the sociocultural context within which they construct meaning. Thus, from a sociocultural perspective, emergent bilingualism and biliteracy encompass children’s use of their cultural, linguistic, and literacy experiences to co-construct meaning with peers, siblings, teachers, parents, and others in their environment.
The naturally-occurring interactions, literacy uses, and play-related activities of three emergent bilingual children from Spanish and/or English home language backgrounds were video-recorded in the sociodramatic play area of their preschool classroom over the course of one year. Data also included non-participant observer field notes. Through microethnographic analyses of children’s self and interactive talk and written language practices, I explored how young bilinguals used oral and written language and other representational systems to make meaning and sustain their play. Preliminary findings indicate that children drew from their developing bilingual language and literacy repertoire to co-construct the meaning of objects and play events. For example, children enacted their developing bilingualism and sociolinguistic competence flexibly through monolingual and parallel bilingual conversations -- sometimes using codeswitching -- for various play-related purposes that included problem resolution, elaboration and extension of past play storylines and specific events, persuasion, role designation, planning, and initiation of new play events. Children used written language to explore and enhance play themes, to document ideas and play events, and to create and integrate real-life artifacts into their play. The three resulting case studies provide complementary and contrastive insight about emergent bilingual children’s translanguaging (Garcia, 2009) and meaning-making practices in the child-directed context of sociodramatic play.

Author

• Mileidis Gort, The Ohio State University