Social Processes in Young Children's Internally Persuasive Discourse

• In Event: 61.087 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: 61.087-2 - Young Children's Language and Social Processes

Abstract

This study explored Bakhtin’s dialogism focusing on the concept of internally persuasive discourse in a group of five preschoolers, when they engage in conversations about theory of cello’s sound production in a classroom setting. The author conducted participant-observation in conversations with the children minimizing authority on the flow of conversations to allow internally persuasive discourse among the children. The results of qualitative analyses based upon the grounded theory approach generated three themes: 1) recognizing new pals that have similar ideas as mine; 2) dealing with disagreements among best friends; 3) continuing peer interaction to understand and test different ideas. This has implications for an early childhood educators’ endeavor to build a respectful and intellectually rigorous classroom environment for young children.

Author

• Sohyun Meacham, University of Northern Iowa