Abstract Summary
The aim of this longitudinal ethnographic study was to explore how children's verbal and nonverbal behavior reflects their language awareness at a bilingual Arabic–Hebrew-speaking preschool in Israel. The study is beneficial for language teachers' understanding of how they can support children's language awareness.
Abstract :
Few studies to date have examined very young children's language awareness as expressed in their verbal and nonverbal interactions with their peers and teachers in the natural context of the preschool bilingual classroom. The aim of this longitudinal ethnographic study was to explore how children's verbal and nonverbal behavior reflects their language awareness at a bilingual Arabic–Hebrew-speaking preschool in Israel. Two theoretical assumptions encouraged our work: (1) a substantial quantitative research showing bilingual children's advanced level of language awareness development, including pragmatic awareness of their interlocutors' communicative needs, in comparison to their monolingual peers: (2) children's verbal and nonverbal behavior in interaction with their peers and teachers has been found to promote language awareness.
We adopted the perspective that children's L2 acquisition is situated within the social events and interactional practices of the classroom community. We took a close look at six bilingual 3-year-old children[quotrightB?]•three L1 Arabic-speaking children and three L1 Hebrew-speaking children. To enhance the credibility of our study, we triangulated the collected observations of the children's talk via teachers and parents' testimonies. We identified 53 cases of the following categories and subcategories of language awareness that have been expressed in the children's verbal and nonverbal behavior: (1) Pragmatic awareness of communicative needs of peers and teachers: negotiating meanings (a) by translating, and (b) by using multiple verbal and nonverbal resources; (2) Critical evaluation of L2 competence: (a) self-monitoring and corrective feedback on others' incorrect language use; and (b) talk about L2 comprehension or lack of it and about unwillingness to use L2. Children's' pragmatic awareness of the interlocutors' communicative troubles was encouraged by a unique classroom context where the teachers stimulated children's language mediation and peers' backup. The study is beneficial for language teachers' understanding of how they can support children's language awareness.
