In the order of words
Teacher–children negotiation about how to translate song lyrics in bilingual early childhood education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.31348Keywords:
immersion preschool, translation, word order, metalinguistic awareness, sociocultural theoryAbstract
This study investigates, from a sociocultural perspective on communication and learning, translating as a joint activity and how it supports the development of metalinguistic awareness in children. Data in the form of audio recordings were generated in an English immersion preschool in Finland. In the analysed activity, the participants are engaged in a discussion around word order when translating the lyrics to a children’s song. The study shows how the teacher scaffolds the children’s language learning through providing contrast and using qualifying markers important to promoting the development of metalinguistic awareness. More generally, the study shows how a translation activity can function as a language-learning practice in bilingual early childhood education.
References
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Bialystock, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bialystock, E., Peets, K. F. & Moreno, S. (2011). Producing bilinguals through immersion education: Development of metalinguistic awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716412000288
Björklund, S., Mård-Miettinen, K. & Savijärvi, M. (2014). Swedish immersion in the early years in Finland. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 17(2), 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2013.866628
Blum-Kulka, S. & Gorbatt, N. (2014). ‘Say princess’: The challenges and affordances of young Hebrew L2 novices’ interaction with their peers. In A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal (eds), Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other (pp. 169–193). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cekaite, A. & Aronsson, K. (2004). Repetition and joking in children’s second language conversation: Playful recyclings in an immersion classroom. Discourse Studies, 6(3), 373–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445604044295
Cekaite, A. & Aronsson, K. (2014). Language play, peer group improvisations, and L2 learning. In A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal (eds), Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other (pp. 194–213). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cekaite, A. & Björk-Willén, P. (2012). Peer group interactions in multilingual educational settings: Co-constructing social order and norms for language use. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17(2), 174–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006912441417
Cekaite, A., Blum-Kulka, S., Grøver, V. & Teubal, E. (2014). Children’s peer talk and learning: Uniting discursive, social, and cultural facets of peer interactions: Editors’ introduction. In A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal (eds), Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other (pp. 3–20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Derry, S. J., Pea, R. D., Barron, B., Engle, R. A., Erickson, F., Goldman, R., Hall, R., Koschmann, T., Lemke, J. L, Sherin, M. G. & Sherin, B. L. (2010). Conducting video research in the learning sciences: Guidance on selection, analysis, technology, and ethics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19, 3–53.
EECERA. (2016). The ethical codes of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association. Retrieved on 7 April 2016 from www.eecera.org/ethical-code.
Farrell, A. (2016). Ethics in early childhood research. In A. Farrell, S. Lynn Kagan & E. K. M. Tisdall (eds), The Sage handbook of early childhood research (pp. 187–195). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Goatly, A. (2011). The language of metaphors, 2nd edn. Abingdon: Routledge.
Göncz, L. & Kodžopeljic´, J. (1991). Exposure to two languages in the preschool period: Metalinguistic development and the acquisition of reading. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 12(3), 137–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1991.9994455
Hammer, C. S., Hoff, E., Uchikoshi, Y., Gillanders, C., Castro, D. C. & Sandilos, L. E. (2014). The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(4), 715–733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.05.008
Hammond, J. & Gibbons, P. (2005). What is scaffolding? In A. Burns & H. d. S. Joyce (eds), Teachers’ voice 8: Explicitly supporting reading and writing in the classroom (pp. 8–16). Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.
Havu-Nuutinen, S. & Niikko, A. (2014). Finnish primary school as a learning environment for six-year-old preschool children. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(5), 621–636. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2014.969084
Helle, T. (1994). Direction in bilingual education: Finnish comprehensive schools in perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 197–219. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1994.tb00063.x
Hogan, D. M. & Tudge, J. R. H. (1999). Implications of Vygotsky’s theory for peer learning. In A. M. O’Donnell & A. King (eds), Cognitive perspectives on peer learning (pp. 39–65). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Jaatinen, R. & Saarivirta, T. (2014). The evolution of English language teaching during social transition in Finland: A mutual relationship or a distinctive process? Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(11), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2014v39n11.3
Jordan, B. & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4, 39–103.
Keaveney, S. & Lundberg, G. (2014). Early language learning and teaching: A1–A2. Lund, Sweden: Studentlitteratur.
Kultti, A. (2013). Singing as language learning activity in multilingual toddler groups in preschool. Early Child Development and Care, 183(12), 1955–1969.
Kultti, A. (2014). Mealtimes in Swedish preschools: Pedagogical opportunities for toddlers learning a new language. Early Years, 34(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2013.831399
Kultti, A. (2015). Adding learning resources: A study of two toddlers’ modes and trajectories of participation in early childhood education. International Journal of Early Years Education, 23(2), 209–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2015.1018147
Kultti, A. & Pramling, N. (2016). ‘Behind the words’: Children and teachers in bilingual preschool negotiating literal/figurative sense when translating the lyrics to a children’s song. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2016.1212261
Kultti, A. & Pramling, N. (2017). Translation activities in bilingual early childhood education: Children’s perspectives and teachers’ scaffolding. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2016-0041
Lantolf, J. P., Thorne, S. L. & Poehner, M. E. (2015). Sociocultural theory and second language development. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (eds), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction, 2nd edn (pp. 207–226). New York: Routledge.
Lewis, M. (1999). How to study foreign languages. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Littleton, K. & Mercer, N. (2013). Interthinking: Putting talk to work. Abingdon: Routledge.
Malakoff, M. & Hakuta, K. (1991). Transition skill and metalinguistic awareness in bilinguals. In E. Bialystok (ed.), Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 141–166). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
May, S. (2008). Bilingual/immersion education: What the research tells us. In J. Cummins & N. H. Hornberger (eds), Bilingual education: Encyclopedia of language and education, volume 5 (pp. 19–34). New York: Springer.
McKeon, D. (1994). Language, culture, and schooling. In F. Genesee (ed.), Educating second language children: The whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community (pp.15–32). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mori, J. & Hasegawa, A. (2009). Doing being a foreign language learner in a classroom: Embodiment of cognitive states as social events. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 47, 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.2009.004
Palincsar, A. S. (1998). Social constructivist perspectives on teaching and learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 345–375. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.345
Pratt, C. & Grieve, R. (1984). The development of metalinguistic awareness: An introduction. In W. E. Tunmer, C. Pratt & M. L. Herriman (eds), Metalinguistic awareness in children: Theory, research, and implications (pp. 2–11). Berlin: Springer.
Puskás, T. (2017). Picking up the threads: Languaging in a Swedish mainstream preschool. Early Years, 37(3), 313–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2016.1178712
Reder, F., Marec-Breton, N., Gombert, J. & Demont, E. (2013). Second-language learners’ advantage in metalinguistic awareness: A question of languages’ characteristics. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 686–702. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep12003
Swain, M. & Johnson, R. K. (1997). Immersion education: A category within bilingual education. In M. Swain & R. K. Johnson (eds), Immersion education: International perspectives (pp. 1–16). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (1982). Evaluating bilingual education: A Canadian case study. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
van de Pol, J. & Elbers, E. (2013). Scaffolding student learning: A micro-analysis of teacher-student interaction. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2(1), 32–41.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Volume 4: The history of the development of higher mental functions (ed. M. J. Hall; trans. R. W. Rieber). New York: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, vol. 5: Child psychology. New York: Plenum.
Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press. Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations (trans. G. E. M. Anscombe). Oxford: Blackwell.
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S. & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1976.tb00381.x
Barac, R., Bialystok, E., Castro, D.C. & Sanchez, M. (2014). The cognitive development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Child Research Quarterly, 29(4), 699–714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.02.003
Bialystock, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bialystock, E., Peets, K. F. & Moreno, S. (2011). Producing bilinguals through immersion education: Development of metalinguistic awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 177–191. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716412000288
Björklund, S., Mård-Miettinen, K. & Savijärvi, M. (2014). Swedish immersion in the early years in Finland. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 17(2), 197–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2013.866628
Blum-Kulka, S. & Gorbatt, N. (2014). ‘Say princess’: The challenges and affordances of young Hebrew L2 novices’ interaction with their peers. In A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal (eds), Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other (pp. 169–193). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cekaite, A. & Aronsson, K. (2004). Repetition and joking in children’s second language conversation: Playful recyclings in an immersion classroom. Discourse Studies, 6(3), 373–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445604044295
Cekaite, A. & Aronsson, K. (2014). Language play, peer group improvisations, and L2 learning. In A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal (eds), Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other (pp. 194–213). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cekaite, A. & Björk-Willén, P. (2012). Peer group interactions in multilingual educational settings: Co-constructing social order and norms for language use. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17(2), 174–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006912441417
Cekaite, A., Blum-Kulka, S., Grøver, V. & Teubal, E. (2014). Children’s peer talk and learning: Uniting discursive, social, and cultural facets of peer interactions: Editors’ introduction. In A. Cekaite, S. Blum-Kulka, V. Grøver & E. Teubal (eds), Children’s peer talk: Learning from each other (pp. 3–20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Derry, S. J., Pea, R. D., Barron, B., Engle, R. A., Erickson, F., Goldman, R., Hall, R., Koschmann, T., Lemke, J. L, Sherin, M. G. & Sherin, B. L. (2010). Conducting video research in the learning sciences: Guidance on selection, analysis, technology, and ethics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19, 3–53.
EECERA. (2016). The ethical codes of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association. Retrieved on 7 April 2016 from www.eecera.org/ethical-code.
Farrell, A. (2016). Ethics in early childhood research. In A. Farrell, S. Lynn Kagan & E. K. M. Tisdall (eds), The Sage handbook of early childhood research (pp. 187–195). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Goatly, A. (2011). The language of metaphors, 2nd edn. Abingdon: Routledge.
Göncz, L. & Kodžopeljic´, J. (1991). Exposure to two languages in the preschool period: Metalinguistic development and the acquisition of reading. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 12(3), 137–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1991.9994455
Hammer, C. S., Hoff, E., Uchikoshi, Y., Gillanders, C., Castro, D. C. & Sandilos, L. E. (2014). The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29(4), 715–733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.05.008
Hammond, J. & Gibbons, P. (2005). What is scaffolding? In A. Burns & H. d. S. Joyce (eds), Teachers’ voice 8: Explicitly supporting reading and writing in the classroom (pp. 8–16). Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.
Havu-Nuutinen, S. & Niikko, A. (2014). Finnish primary school as a learning environment for six-year-old preschool children. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(5), 621–636. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2014.969084
Helle, T. (1994). Direction in bilingual education: Finnish comprehensive schools in perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 197–219. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1994.tb00063.x
Hogan, D. M. & Tudge, J. R. H. (1999). Implications of Vygotsky’s theory for peer learning. In A. M. O’Donnell & A. King (eds), Cognitive perspectives on peer learning (pp. 39–65). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Jaatinen, R. & Saarivirta, T. (2014). The evolution of English language teaching during social transition in Finland: A mutual relationship or a distinctive process? Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(11), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2014v39n11.3
Jordan, B. & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4, 39–103.
Keaveney, S. & Lundberg, G. (2014). Early language learning and teaching: A1–A2. Lund, Sweden: Studentlitteratur.
Kultti, A. (2013). Singing as language learning activity in multilingual toddler groups in preschool. Early Child Development and Care, 183(12), 1955–1969.
Kultti, A. (2014). Mealtimes in Swedish preschools: Pedagogical opportunities for toddlers learning a new language. Early Years, 34(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2013.831399
Kultti, A. (2015). Adding learning resources: A study of two toddlers’ modes and trajectories of participation in early childhood education. International Journal of Early Years Education, 23(2), 209–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2015.1018147
Kultti, A. & Pramling, N. (2016). ‘Behind the words’: Children and teachers in bilingual preschool negotiating literal/figurative sense when translating the lyrics to a children’s song. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2016.1212261
Kultti, A. & Pramling, N. (2017). Translation activities in bilingual early childhood education: Children’s perspectives and teachers’ scaffolding. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2016-0041
Lantolf, J. P., Thorne, S. L. & Poehner, M. E. (2015). Sociocultural theory and second language development. In B. VanPatten & J. Williams (eds), Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction, 2nd edn (pp. 207–226). New York: Routledge.
Lewis, M. (1999). How to study foreign languages. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Littleton, K. & Mercer, N. (2013). Interthinking: Putting talk to work. Abingdon: Routledge.
Malakoff, M. & Hakuta, K. (1991). Transition skill and metalinguistic awareness in bilinguals. In E. Bialystok (ed.), Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 141–166). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
May, S. (2008). Bilingual/immersion education: What the research tells us. In J. Cummins & N. H. Hornberger (eds), Bilingual education: Encyclopedia of language and education, volume 5 (pp. 19–34). New York: Springer.
McKeon, D. (1994). Language, culture, and schooling. In F. Genesee (ed.), Educating second language children: The whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community (pp.15–32). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mori, J. & Hasegawa, A. (2009). Doing being a foreign language learner in a classroom: Embodiment of cognitive states as social events. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 47, 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.2009.004
Palincsar, A. S. (1998). Social constructivist perspectives on teaching and learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 345–375. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.345
Pratt, C. & Grieve, R. (1984). The development of metalinguistic awareness: An introduction. In W. E. Tunmer, C. Pratt & M. L. Herriman (eds), Metalinguistic awareness in children: Theory, research, and implications (pp. 2–11). Berlin: Springer.
Puskás, T. (2017). Picking up the threads: Languaging in a Swedish mainstream preschool. Early Years, 37(3), 313–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2016.1178712
Reder, F., Marec-Breton, N., Gombert, J. & Demont, E. (2013). Second-language learners’ advantage in metalinguistic awareness: A question of languages’ characteristics. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 686–702. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep12003
Swain, M. & Johnson, R. K. (1997). Immersion education: A category within bilingual education. In M. Swain & R. K. Johnson (eds), Immersion education: International perspectives (pp. 1–16). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. (1982). Evaluating bilingual education: A Canadian case study. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
van de Pol, J. & Elbers, E. (2013). Scaffolding student learning: A micro-analysis of teacher-student interaction. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2(1), 32–41.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1997). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, Volume 4: The history of the development of higher mental functions (ed. M. J. Hall; trans. R. W. Rieber). New York: Plenum Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1998). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky, vol. 5: Child psychology. New York: Plenum.
Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. New York: Oxford University Press. Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations (trans. G. E. M. Anscombe). Oxford: Blackwell.
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S. & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1976.tb00381.x
Published
2017-12-18
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Jidai, Y., Kultti, A., & Pramling, N. (2017). In the order of words: Teacher–children negotiation about how to translate song lyrics in bilingual early childhood education. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 1(2), 199-221. https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.31348
