Applied Linguistics Advance Access published online on January 10, 2008
Applied Linguistics, doi:10.1093/applin/amm051
© Oxford University Press 2007
Routine Trouble: How Preschool Children Participate in Multilingual Instruction
Linköping University, Sweden
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Abstract |
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This paper examines the turn-by-turn organization of social actions during educational activities at a multilingual preschool in Sweden. Specifically, it focuses on instructional exchanges within two commonplace activities: ‘sharing time’ and ‘Spanish group’. The study builds on earlier research arguing that interactional routines facilitate children's participation in social activities, and therefore promote language learning. Several instances of interactional trouble are identified and discussed in terms of the teachers’ elaboration of some routine features of these activities, resulting in a mismatch between the teachers’ local aims and the children's projections of relevant next actions. The analysis further highlights a range of interactional means through which the participants act to come to terms with the trouble. These findings are discussed in terms of the participants’ local concerns as well as the children's orientations to the routine features of preschool activities. Some educational implications are finally proposed on the basis of these findings.
Accepted for publication 1 August 2007.