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This book follows four emergent bilingual students in an English-medium pre-kindergarten in the US as they navigate the social and linguistic demands of school. It illustrates how students’ differing classroom social positions shaped their participation in interaction and, in turn, their English language learning across a school year. With a unique focus on both processes and outcomes, the book highlights language strategies that are overlooked if the focus is solely on one language or on group participation, and it emphasizes the importance of assessment choice in shaping which learners appear to be successful. It is a powerful argument for recognising the translingual and multimodal abilities of learners, even in education which is officially English-medium and monolingual.
Through close and textured observation, this book takes us into children’s worlds where language learning is closely linked to social relations. Its frank engagement with theoretical and analytical dilemmas is fresh and fascinating, and points to new areas of study. The book has a rich, intensive ethnographical approach, and offers a beautifully rendered portrait of processes children encounter in their classroom every day.
Katie A. Bernstein is Assistant Professor of Early Childhood and English Language Learner Education, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University, USA. Her research focuses on the language and literacy learning of multilingual children and the contexts in which their learning takes place.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Participation in Interaction and Language Learning: A Layered Approach
Chapter 2: Language and Language Learning as Social Practice
Chapter 3: From Bhutan, Uzbekistan, and Berkeley to River City: Arrivals and Approaches
Chapter 4: Adults as Context-makers: Parents’ and Teachers’ Belief About Language
Chapter 5: The Social Field of Classroom Three: Policies and Practices
Chapter 6: Becoming Students, Becoming Speakers: Social Positioning and Learning in Classroom Three
Chapter 7: Who Learned What?: Three Perspectives on Success in Language Learning
Chapter 8: Beyond English: Multimodal, Multilingual Repertoires at Work
Chapter 9: The Edge Has its Advantages: Participation and Learning on the Periphery
Chapter 10: Concluding Thoughts: Success Stories
References