ERIC Number: EJ748355
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 23
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0782
EISSN: N/A
Playing to Learn: A Qualitative Analysis of Bilingual Pupil-Pupil Talk during Board Game Play
Smith, Heather
Language and Education, v20 n5 p415-437 2006
This paper explores what happens when bilingual learners come together to play a board game specially designed to facilitate an interactive context in which the learning of English as a second or additional language is promoted. An example of the interactive behaviour of one group of bilingual learners is then presented in order to illustrate such language learning "in action" within this game playing context. Interactive episodes, analysed in detail from within a sociocultural framework, reveal the mechanisms by which pupils support and mediate one another's learning. Such analysis reveals second/additional language learning as a process, an aspect of learning often overlooked and undervalued in classrooms, given the quest for ever more standardised and summative forms of assessment in the UK today. It is argued that the resulting information on how bilingual pupils learn English is useful in suggesting subsequent teaching strategies.
Descriptors: Bilingualism, Educational Games, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Sociocultural Patterns, Learning Processes, Bilingual Students, Foreign Countries, Interaction
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
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