Everyday poetics and language play in young children’s interactions in a bilingual institutional context
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6013550 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Olga Anatoli (0000-0002-6497-8986, Linköping University, corresponding author), Asta Cekaite (0000-0003-4580-3002, Department of Thematic Studies – Child studies, Linköping, Sweden) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 920-940 |
| 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 | 10.1177/14614456251372997 |
| OpenAlex | W4415213136 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 38 |
The study examines young children’s peer group interactions characterized by creative language use. We operationalize the concept of everyday poetics to explore the forms, heteroglossic resources, and the social and aesthetic purposes of children’s peer encounters. The data consists of video ethnography conduced in a bilingual Swedish-English preschool for children aged 1–5 in Sweden. Using multimodal conversation analysis, the study shows that e veryday poetics involved young bilinguals engaging in aesthetic, exploratory talk through sound and meaning associations, category explorations, and cross-speaker sound and word play in both institutional languages. Children’s language play served multiple purposes beyond the social relationality of the peer group. Children employed heteroglossia in aesthetic performances and language teaching, which became integral parts of social episodes that began as language play. The study argues that analytical attention to aesthetic and playful features of everyday interaction can contribute to our deeper understanding of human sociality
EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy
The Dialogic Imagination
Rethinking Language, Mind, and World Dialogically
Translanguaging
Talking to children
Conversational competence in children
Imagination and Creativity in Childhood
This Time I'll be the Golden Bird’
Schwedis’ he can’t even say Swedish” - subverting and reproducing institutionalized norms for language use in multilingual peer groups
Language policies in play
Children’s use of English as lingua franca in Swedish preschools
The Verbal Games of Pre-School Children
Translanguaging in the transitions
Heteroglossia and language creativity in multilingual boys’ chat-communication
Language creativity and heteroglossia in the peer group
Repetition and Joking in Children’s Second Language Conversations
The Social and Discursive Spectrum of Peer Talk
On the poetics of ordinary talk1
Language Play, a Collaborative Resource in Children's L2 learning
Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language
Microgenesis of language creativity
When education seeps into 'free play
The co-operative, transformative organization of human action and knowledge
Calibrating joint attention and affective stances in young children's peer interactions
Multimodal interaction from a conversation analytic perspective
Breaking in and spinning out
Footing
Heteroglossia
Transcribing encounters with the 'wild
Experiencing language
Poetics and Performances as Critical Perspectives on Language and Social Life
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |