Early Language Learning & Multilingual Education Network

Developing metalinguistic awareness in early childhood education though pedagogical translanguaging

Translanguaging is nowadays an umbrella term that embraces a wide variety of theoretical and practical proposals. Pedagogical translanguaging is a theoretical and instructional approach that aims at improving language and content competences in school contexts by using resources from the learner’s whole linguistic repertoire. The multilingual repertoire can be a rich resource for language and content learning in early childhood language learning. However, prior knowledge often needs to be activated so as to develop metalinguistic awareness. Pedagogical translanguaging can make learners aware of their own multilingual resources so that they can use them more effectively. The focus of this presentation will be on the role of pedagogical translanguaging to enhance metalinguistic awareness when learning  languages in pre-primary and primary school.  This presentation will show how activating the use of resources from the whole linguistic repertoire can stimulate the development of metalinguistic awareness and contribute to benefitting to a greater extent from the advantages associated with multilingualism in early childhood.

How to engage young children in a novel language learning: Teacher, parents, peers, and child in interaction

The growing diversity of various preschool educational programs in the past two decades has induced a significant increase in research activity throughout the world, focusing on early language learning and teaching (e.g., Alstad & Mourão, 2022; Otto & Cortina-Pérez, 2022; Schwartz, 2022; Schwartz & Palviainen, 2016). In this talk, I will discuss why creating a developmentally appropriate ecological context for children's engagement in a language learning process is necessary. In this context, I will draw on van Lier's view of language ecology, which "includes all physical, social and symbolic affordances that provide grounds for activity" (van Lier, 2004, p. 4f.).

One of the critical characteristics of early language learning is a child's willingness to be actively engaged in this process. This willingness is strongly influenced by a child's personal characteristics and life history, including caregivers' and peers' support, the motive for learning a language, and the significance of the target language in his or her life (Schwartz, 2023). Then, young children are not engaged to the same extent in early language learning activities in a classroom because of differences in their learning ecology. Thus, I will address the following critical questions: (1) Why is engagement paramount for early language learning? (2) What factors can promote and impede the child's engagement in early language learning? (3) What can teachers, parents, and peers do to create a language-conducive context engaging the child in early language learning?  The end of the talk will address further research questions focusing on the theoretical and practical significance of the child engaging with language in early language education.

Engaging children in dialogue with picturebook aesthetic elements

Traditionally, books have been essential tools for teaching across subjects and disciplines. With books, teachers can have communication and dialogue with students to make learning meaningful.

While technology and digital resources have become increasingly prevalent in education, yet the simple book design of printed separate sheets of paper bound together at one side with a cover continues to play a vital role in teaching.

Picturebooks are a relatively new form of children’s literature. They are art objects that blend pictures and words harmoniously. The aim of this presentation is to explore the rich potential of picturebooks for engaging children in dialogue. In the first part of the presentation, I very briefly overview the history of modern picturebooks. In the second part,  I discuss the potential of this genre for dialogic teaching. I will try to provide an answer to a few questions:

• Why reading picturebooks with children?

• What to look at during readalouds?

• Why every design element of a picturebook matters?

After close looking at one element always present in picturebooks,  I will describe a mediating approach to encourage children to talk during interactive storytimes.

Research-based early childhood teacher education? Roles, trends and challenges in using language education research in preparing teachers for multilingual contexts

Worldwide, there are huge variations in how to prepare teachers for the complexity of language education in early childhood education and care contexts (Alstad, 2020). However, the expectations to teachers in general are increasing, both related to their professional role and to their knowledge base (Cochran-Smith, 2013). Research is expected to play a prominent role in building the knowledge base in both preservice and in-service teacher education, and research-based and research-informed teacher education have been a focal concern in educational policies during the past few decades (Mayer & Oancea, 2021).

Research on multilingual early childhood education contexts is growing, including the number of doctoral theses, which represent new and original work in the research field. In this presentation, I discuss research trends in early childhood teacher education, using analysis of recent doctoral dissertations as a starting point. The presentation draws partly on previous review studies of doctoral dissertations (Smith, 2015; Østern, 2016) and partly an ongoing study of dissertations defended at Norwegian teacher education institutions in the years 2020-2022 (Kulbrandstad, Kulbrandstad & Alstad, in progress). The dissertations have in common that they are professionally oriented and practice-based and often written by candidates with experience from language teaching. Based on an analysis of research topics, research design and methodologies in these doctoral studies, I will discuss these studies’ contribution to language education research in light of current trends and challenges in the international teacher education research landscape (Alstad, 2020, Cochran-Smith, 2013; Tatto, 2015; Mayer & Oancea, 2021).