Bilingual preschoolers' social interactions, emotional challenges, and functional language use while learning English as an additional language /

Date

2018

Authors

Farndale, Amy Catherine,

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thesis

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Abstract

In Australia, over 300 languages are spoken by children. In some preschools as many as 70% of three to five-year-olds are learning English as an additional language (EAL). This was the case at Gumtree Preschool, where the present descriptive case study aimed to develop in-depth understanding of the social interactions, emotional challenges, and functional language use of bilingual preschoolers. Research investigating how children’s emotions and their relationships with their interlocutors impact upon what they say is limited. Yet, the Australian Early Development Census recently identified bilingual five-year-olds (those not proficient in English) as vulnerable in social, emotional, and communication domains. Research has indicated that emotions motivate action (speaking), and sometimes inaction (not speaking). However, research exploring bilingual children’s functional language use provides little information on the socio-emotional context influencing children’s speech-even though understanding how children use language in different social and emotional contexts can inform curriculum, programming, and educators’ practices to support children learning to speak EAL. The study, therefore, explores this problem, along with educators’ strategies that address bilingual preschoolers’ social interactions, emotional challenges and functional language use.

School/Discipline

University of South Australia. School of Education.
School of Education.

Dissertation Note

Thesis (PhD(Education))--University of South Australia, 2018.

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Copyright 2018 Amy Catherine Farndale.

Description

1 ethesis (xviii, 384 pages) :
illustrations (chiefly colour).
Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-355)

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506 0#$fstar $2Unrestricted online access

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