ERIC Number: EJ1149187
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jul
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0167-8507
EISSN: N/A
Dilemmatic Aspects of Language Policies in a Trilingual Preschool Group
Puskás, Tünde; Björk-Willén, Polly
Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, v36 n4 p425-449 Jul 2017
This article explores dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a preschool group in which three languages (Swedish, Romani and Arabic) are spoken on an everyday basis. The article highlights the interplay between policy decisions on the societal level, the teachers' interpretations of these policies, as well as language practices on the micro level. The preschool group is seen as a complex context for negotiating language policies and expectations regarding language use. The theoretical framework builds on Billig's work on ideological and everyday dilemmas that we argue are detectable at both levels of the analysis. The analysis of the ethnographic material shows that the explicit language policy formulated in the Swedish preschool curriculum leads, in practice, to ideological, pedagogical and everyday dilemmas. Moreover, an unwillingness to set rules for children's language choice combined with the central position of free play in Swedish preschool practice has led to a situation in which children fall short of their potential to develop bilingual competence.
Descriptors: Preschool Education, Preschool Children, Language Usage, Ethnography, Foreign Countries, Swedish, Semitic Languages, Romance Languages, Multilingualism, Decision Making, Policy Formation, Educational Policy, Preschool Curriculum, Correlation, Preschool Teachers, Play, Bilingualism, Second Language Learning, Teacher Attitudes, Discourse Analysis, Classroom Communication, Interviews
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Preschool Education; Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sweden
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A