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Article published In: Interactions and Language Acquisition in Non-Family Settings
Edited by Caroline Masson
[Language, Interaction and Acquisition 15:1] 2024
► pp. 57–94

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Children’s multimodal participation in interactions and dialogues across different activities in an early childhood education and care setting

 | Université Lille
 | Université du Québec à Montréal
 | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Published online: 14 November 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.00022.cae
Abstract
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings are challenging contexts for children to engage in conversations. According to previous studies, toddler participation is minimal. However, most studies have focused on vocal productions. This study investigates how gestures also enable children to participate in interactions. From video recordings of three types of activities (mealtime, playtime, booktime) in a French ECEC, we systematically categorised utterances as being vocal, gestural or multimodal. One third of the utterances was produced by children. In mealtime and playtime, most utterances contained a vocal production, while in booktime, most contained a gesture. Gestural utterances were only addressed to professionals. The qualitative analysis of two sequences further highlights how gestures enable the building of joint attention, the co-construction of dialogic exchanges and the engagement of some children as observers. Taking gestures into account sheds new light on children’s participation in interactions and dialogues in ECEC.
Résumé
La crèche est un contexte complexe pour l’engagement des enfants dans les échanges ; des études précédentes ont suggéré que les enfants participaient peu. Cependant, la plupart n’ont pris en compte que les productions vocales. Cette étude examine la manière dont les gestes permettent également l’engagement des enfants. À partir d’enregistrements vidéo de trois types d’activités (repas, jeux, livres) dans une crèche française, nous avons procédé à une catégorisation systématique des énoncés selon qu’ils étaient vocaux, gestuels ou multimodaux. Les enfants ont produit un tiers des énoncés. Pendant les repas et les jeux, la plupart des énoncés étaient vocaux ; pendant la lecture de livres, ils étaient surtout gestuels. Les énoncés gestuels des enfants n’ont été adressés qu’aux professionnels. L’analyse qualitative de deux séquences met par ailleurs en évidence la façon dont les gestes permettent la co-construction d’échanges dialogiques et la participation de certains en tant qu’observateurs. La prise en compte des gestes apporte ainsi un éclairage nouveau sur la participation des enfants aux interactions et aux dialogues dans les contextes d’accueil collectif.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical orientations, methodological implications, and challenges for the current study
  • 3.Child participation in ECEC interactions
    • 3.1Child (vocal) participation low in ECEC interactions
    • 3.2Activities impact language use and child participation in interactions
    • 3.3Multimodality sporadically taken into account in the study of ECEC interactions
  • 4.The current study
    • 4.1Hypotheses
    • 4.2Collected data
    • 4.3Transcription
    • 4.4Coding
    • 4.5Inter-rater agreement
    • 4.6Analysis
  • 5.Multimodality and participation as speakers and addressees: A quantitative perspective
    • 5.1Speakers’ identity and modality of children’s utterances across activities
    • 5.2Addressees across activities and modality of children address
    • 5.3Relationship between addressing children and children’s utterance modality
  • 6.Multimodality in the co-construction of dialogues: An interactional and dialogic perspective
    • 6.1Language modality and requests during snack time
    • 6.2Language modality and the building of discursive spaces during a booktime sequence
  • 7.Discussion
    • 7.1Who produces language across activities?
    • 7.2Whom do toddlers and professionals address across activities?
    • 7.3What modality do children use when participating in interactions?
    • 7.4Limitations and future directions
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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