Teacher and peer interaction in lower age novice-newcomer’s L2 learning and socialisation

Abstract

This study adopts a sociocultural approach to examine the language socialisation of a lower age novice-newcomer recently arrived in a Finnish open day care centre. A mixed method approach combining ethnographic analysis and quantitative analysis has been used to analyse video-recordings. The results suggest that when educators recognise language novice-newcomer’s diverse needs and deploy thereby multimodal socialising strategies (i.e. verbal, gestural), the novice-newcomer’s language and interactive competences could ameliorate across time. Different from adults, the local children seem unconscious of the diverse needs of peers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, which sets out challenges for educators in balancing recognition of diversity with equality.