Young learner agency
Footing and heteroglossia in bilingual Swedish-Chinese children’s heritage language learning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6013546 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zejia Xu (0009-0004-9747-6730, Uppsala University, corresponding author), A C Evaldsson (0000-0002-6556-4494, Uppsala University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1026-1049 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-4456 • E-ISSN: 1461-7080 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14614456251372991 |
| OpenAlex | W4415240823 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 56 |
This study explores how young bilingual (Swedish-Chinese) children (ages 3–5) exercise their agency in heritage language learning. The study draws on a multimodal interactional approach to video-ethnographic data from classroom interactions at a Chinese weekend school in Sweden, and the analysis combines Goffman’s concept of footing with Bakhtin’s approach to heteroglossia and multivoicedness. Particular focus is on how the children use reported speech, along with code-switching and embodied actions, to incorporate voices of absent parties (family members) in classroom discourse in order to assert epistemic and moral authority while strengthening peer alignments. Such multivocal, multilingual, and multimodal practices imply shifts in footing and participation frameworks from teacher-led to child-oriented. Simultaneously, the children’s heteroglossic practices orient to monolingual norms of Chinese as the preferred classroom language. The findings contribute to an understanding of young children’s collective agency in transforming heritage language learning situations into dialogically co-constructed heteroglossic practices
EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy
The Dialogic Imagination
Exploring Classroom Discourse
Heteroglossia as Practice and Pedagogy
Learner initiatives and learning opportunities in the language classroom
Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction
Young children’s language-based agency in multilingual contexts in Luxembourg and Israel
Ideology, agency, and imagination in multilingual families
Heteroglossia and Boundaries
Embodied performances and footings in a young child’s spontaneous participation in bilingual Russian–Swedish storytelling
“You are children but you can always say …”
Learning Lessons
Participation, stance and affect in the organization of activities
Multiple Temporalities of Language and Body in Interaction
Dilemmatic aspects of language policies in a trilingual preschool group
On the inclusive and exclusive functions of the ‘other’ language in family talk
Language policies in play
Language policy, multilingual encounters, and transnational families
Multilingual encounters in transcultural families
Heteroglossia and language creativity in multilingual boys’ chat-communication
Taza Qazaqsha” or Translanguaging? Exploring heritage language maintenance strategies among Central Asian Kazakh immigrant families in California
Repetition and Joking in Children’s Second Language Conversations
Limitations and transformations of habitus in Child-Directed Communication
Staging Linguistic Identities and Negotiating Monolingual Norms in Multiethnic School Settings
Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language
Concurrent operations on talk
Codes, code-switching, and context
When X doesn't mark the spot
Footing in bilingual play
Negotiating language ideologies through imaginary play
Emergent focused interactions in public places
Socializing politeness routines
Stance and footing in multilingual play
Framing, footing, and language scaling practices in children's multilingual peer and sibling-kin group interactions
The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation
Footing
Taught Cognitive learning in its Immediate Environments
Discourse Strategies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |