Beyond Borders-Digital Tablets as a Resource for Pre-school Children’s Communication in a Minority Language
Publication details
| Year: | 2018 |
| DOI: | 10.16993/dfl.87 |
| Issued: | 2018 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 10 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Start Page: | 88 |
| End Page: | 99 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Petersen P. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Designs for Learning |
| Publisher: | Stockholm University Press |
| Place: | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Topics: | Internet usage, practices and engagement; Access, inequalities and vulnerabilities; Other |
| Sample: | Three Swedish preschool groups with children aged one-and-a-half to five years old, in three different preschools located in a socio-economically and culturally diverse area. Each group comprised 15–20 children and three teachers, with most of the children being bilingual users of Swedish in addition to their minority language, Finnish. |
| Implications For Educators About: | Professional development; School innovation; Other |
Abstract
n this video ethnographic study, a social semiotic approach has been used to explore how the use of digital tablets in preschools may enable children’s communication in a minority language. The results show how preschool children use the emerging affordances of digital tablets in order to act as producers of minority language activities, where their prior knowledge is acknowledged. Applications such as Skype enable peers to communicate in a mutual language beyond the limitations of geographic preschool boundaries. Limitations, such as the lack of appropriate applications available in minority languages, are also discussed. Furthermore, a proposal is made to broaden the understanding of what could constitute multilingual activities.
Outcome
"The results show how a multimodal, social semiotic approach, with the minority-language-speaking child seen as an active producer of language and knowledge, can help bring forth an alternative view of the possibilities of using digital resources in preschool environments. The importance of the emerging affordances of the digital tablet has also been shown as crucial for the possibility of these children to act and create these multilingual activities." (Author, 97)