Language and interaction among young bilingual children in the first year at school

Abstract

This is a unique study of a sample of young bilingual South Asian children in their first year at school. The sample was taken from the intakes to two West Riding schools in which the children had been allocated at random, to control and experimental conditions representing curriculum delivery through English language alone and through equal use of Panjabi and English. Twenty three of the total sample were selected for this study and eleven were selected for extended study, representing high, mid and low scorers on mid-year tests.

The children's communicative behaviour was recorded by trained observers using audiotape check. A quantitative analysis was undertaken to establish patterns of interaction and variability in interaction according to sex, school, language subgroup and curriculum context.

The main findings were:

1 Looking, listening and speaking were by far the most frequent actions.

2 Although there was consensus bet ween staff about curriculum content and approach, there were differences between schools which related largely to differences in style, strategy and role.

3 Children initiated speech interaction at a much higher rate in language subgroups: about twice as much as for the English group and about four times as much for the Panjabi group. This indicates a higher level of confidence in communication in Panjabi and the concomitant opportunity for deeper and extended discourse.

4 Different curriculum contexts provided different communicative frameworks and all subgroups were affected equally. Language and number contexts produced high levels of discussion. Boys and girls differed in terms of which contexts prompted most talk.

5 High scorers talked more and to a wider range of interactants, particularly peers and bilingual staff, than lower scorers.

The evidence supports the role of active participation in communicative development and the linguistic interdependence hypothesis.

Date of Award	1989
Original language	English