“I’m Your Best Friend”: Peer Interaction and Friendship in a Multilingual Preschool
Friendship and Peer Culture in Multilingual Settings
ISBN: 978-1-78635-396-2, eISBN: 978-1-78635-395-5
Publication date: 17 December 2016
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter investigates children’s play and social interactions in a multilingual preschool context where the lingua franca (common language) is English. This investigation follows the experiences of one child for whom English is a second language (L2). The analytic focus explores how the child gains access and participation in play activities in relation to the peer culture of the group.
Methodology/approach
Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis approaches, this chapter offers turn-by-turn analysis to show how the children’s interactions unfold and identifies children’s interactional approaches as they enter play and make friends. Particular attention is focused on how one of the children manages his attempts at entry into the peer group’s games using the building blocks.
Findings
The close detailed analysis of one extended episode highlighted the co-produced nature of interaction. The findings identify a repertoire of four resources used by one of the L2 children within the peer group, to access play activities in the building space: (1) linguistic resources of requests, such as “Can I play?” “Are you building?”; (2) “tailing” others closely; (3) references to the moral obligations of being a best friend; and (4) using objects as resources for entry. While the analytic focus is on one child’s strategies, analysis considers this child’s individual actions in relation to his peers. What is made apparent is that children’s uptake and participation in peer interaction is dependent on the social agenda and the local aspects of peer culture, not solely on children's language proficiency.
Originality/value
Attention to how children employ strategies to play and understanding the local conditions of peer culture can assist educators to support children’s attempts for participation and friendship in multilingual early years settings.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
Seed funding from the Office of Education Research, Queensland University of Technology, enabled this research, titled, Better friends better lives: Supporting children’s talk and interaction in a multilingual setting, led by Dr Maryanne Theobald. University ethical approval for low-risk human research (QUT Ethics Approval Number 1400000744) was obtained before conducting the research. We thank the children and teachers involved in the study.
Citation
Theobald, M., Bateman, A., Busch, G., Laraghy, M. and Danby, S. (2016), "“I’m Your Best Friend”: Peer Interaction and Friendship in a Multilingual Preschool", Friendship and Peer Culture in Multilingual Settings (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 171-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-466120160000021009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
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