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Barns språkliga samspel och kommunikation i förskolan

De vardagliga samtalen i relation till andra, formar barn på olika sätt. Genom att reflektera över andras och egna uppfattningar erhåller barn en förståelse om sig själva. Det egna jaget utvecklas och genom erfarenheter förändras uppfattningar och kunskaper. Barns tidiga möten i relationer och samspel med andra har betydelse för hur barn utvecklas i språkliga sammanhang. I läroplanen för förskolan (Lpfö, 2010) står det att barn ska ges möjlighet till att utveckla sitt språk samt utveckla sin förmåga att argumentera och kommunicera med andra. Men hur vet vi vilka möjligheter som ges till språklig interaktion med personal och barn i förskolan?

 Från det VR finansierade Forskningsprojektet, Förskolan som barns språkmiljö där syftet är att studera den fysiska och sociala språkmiljön kommer en delstudie att presenteras. Martina Norling presenterar de forskningsresultat som utgår från den sociala språkmiljön i förskolan det vill säga, personalens förhållningssätt, samspel och kommunikation med barnen i förskolan.

Which pedagogical support, methods and programs are applied in preschool for children in need of special support and grey zone children?

The aim of this study was to investigate, identify and describe different ways of pedagogic support, methods and programs children in need of special support obtain in preschool today and if the support matches the individual child’s needs.

In Sweden, most children spend time at preschools from an early age. About 76% of Swedish children in the age range 1-5 years spend several hours at preschool or in family child care every weekday. Also the majority of young children in need of special support spend several hours every weekday day in preschools. Thus, besides the family setting, preschools is the natural environment in which most early intervention services to children in need of special support are provided. Preschool includes both general early childhood education provided to all children and special interventions provided to children in need of special support (Björck-Åkesson & Granlund, 2005). By law the preschool has a special responsibility for children in need of special support. The community should offer the child a placement in a preschool and to adapt the education to all children in the preschool. The number of children in need of special support has increased since 1999, and 55% of the communities in Sweden mean that the support to those children is not sufficient (Skolverket, 2004).

The data collection in this study consists of interviews from 34 preschools teachers. The study consists of both qualitative and quantitative analyzes.

The data suggest that pedagogical support include five categories related to direct and indirect support: attitudes, language support, physical support, child support and support in the environment. Six categories of methods were found, language, motor activities, more adult time, expression activities, professional and pedagogical programs.

Förskola och förskoleklass har fått tydligare riktlinjer gällande barns språk-, läs- och skrivutveckling. Den här studiens syfte är att belysa hur förskollärare i förskola och lärare i förskoleklass resonerar kring undervisningens innhehåll i relation till barns språk-, läs- och skrivutveckling i förskola och förskoleklass. Resultatet utgår från fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer med tjugotre verksamma förskollärare och lärare i förskoleklass. Resultatet visar att barn erbjuds informella och formella strategier där innehåll i undervisningen kan relateras till läroplanernas målbeskrivningar samt Bartons (2007) ekologiska teori, så som språkpraktiker, textpraktiker och läspraktiker. Vidare visar resultatet att undervisning i båda verksamheterna behöver problematiseras och diskuteras i relation till verksamheten samt till barns läs- och skriftspråksutveckling. Det behövs fortsatt forskning inom området för att undersöka hur verksamheterna implementerar nya riktlinjer gällande språk-, läs- och skrivutveckling, i syfte att skapa förutsättningar för progression i språk-, läs- och skrivutveckling i övergången mellan förskola och förskoleklass

Title: Preschool – a social language environment and an arena for emergent literacy processes.

Author: Martina Norling

By focusing on preschool, as an arena for emergent literacy and language learning processes, this thesis put the lens on preschool staff´s approaches and strategies in the social language environment in Swedish preschools. Taking its point of departure in real preschool settings, the overall purpose of this thesis is to develop a greater understanding of this social language environment, with particular emphasis on the quality dimensions of strategies, such as the preschool staff´s sensitivity and approaches in the preschool environment. Two didactic issues are of special importance to the thesis: preschool staff´s descriptions of what kind of strategies and approaches they use in the social language environment as well as how preschool staff support children’s language learning processes in literacy-related activities.

The thesis consists of four articles aimed at capturing, variations of dimensions of preschool staff strategies as well as approaches that contribute to highlighting essential strategies for supporting children in the social language environment. The theoretical framework in this thesis consists of social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1997) and bioecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005).

The four empirical studies in this thesis have made possible a mixed method design. The data production consists of questionnaires with questions regarding background information of the participants, observation instruments (scoring the quality of the social language environment), focus group interviews, video observations as well as a systematic literature review.

In this thesis, three dimensions of preschool staff strategies in social language environment emerged: play strategies, emotional strategies and communicative strategies. The social language environment in Swedish preschool can be described in terms of those three strategy dimensions and continuous interplay processes among children, peers and preschool staff, over time. The quality dimensions of strategies focus, on preschool staff efforts and children’s prerequisites of learning processes, rather than focusing on children’s individual performance.

Keywords: Preschool, social constructivism, bioecological theory, preschool staff, emergent literacy, social language environment, language learning processes

This study aims to investigate preschool staff's view of emergent literacy approaches in Swedish preschools with the following research question: How do preschool staff describe and explain the approaches they use in the emergent literacy environment of preschool? Focus-group interviews were conducted with 52 participating preschool units. Manifest content analyses were used and the interviews were systematically analysed relying on socio-cultural theory and the ecological development approach [Barton, D. (2007). Literacy an introduction to the ecology of written language. London: Blackwell; Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Boston, MA: MIT Press], in accordance with Whitehurst and Lonigan's [1998. Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69, 844-872] components of emergent literacy. The results show that preschool staff apply both outside-in and inside-out approaches; however, outside-in approaches such as play and supportive communication are described most frequently in the focus-group interviews.

Research aims

The overall aim is to develop strategies and knowledge about multilingual children’s conditions to learn Swedish as well as emergent literacy skills in Swedish preschools. The aim is also to develop and pilot-test the analysis tool, Social Language Environment - Domain, SLE-D (Norling, 2015).

Relationship to previous research works

Previous studies have investigated preschool staff approaches regarding the emergent literacy environment (Girolametto et al., 2007; Harle & Trudeau, 2006; Jacobs, 2004). However, research investigating preschool staff´s descriptions of how they support multilingual children’s emergent literacy processes, as well as approaches in the social language environment, is lacking.

Theoretical and conceptual framework

The analysis of data is based on theoretical foundations of bioecological and sociocultural theory (Barton, 2007; Bronfenbrenner, 1999; Vygotsky, 1962).

Paradigm, methodology and methods

The research project is carried out in collaboration between researcher and twenty four preschool teachers in Sweden. The development project has a mixed methods design where the preschool teachers participate in circle groups as well as scoring eighteen emergent literacy dimensions.

Ethical Considerations

The study was carried out in accordance with the ethical principles of social sciences research (Ministry of Education and Research, 2003:469). Preschool teachers were personally and written informed about the research project and relevant ethical considerations.

Main finding or discussion

Results regarding preschool staffs scoring, analysis and priority dimensions of language learning conditions for multilingual children in Swedish preschools will be presented.

Implications, practice or policy

This paper will contribute better understanding, how preschool teachers develop didactic as well as constructive strategies regarding multilingual children´s conditions for literacy learning in Swedish preschools.

The overall aim is to develop strategies and knowledge about multilingual children’s conditions to learn Swedish as well as literacy skills in Swedish preschools. This presentation highlights preschool teacher’s didactic strategies to support multilingual children’s language and literacy learning in preschool play- activities.

Relationship to previous research works

This paper presentation refers to an ongoing research project with the character of an action research project. The research project has been carried out in collaboration between the researcher and eighteen preschool teachers in Sweden.

Theoretical and conceptual framework

Starting from a social constructivist perspective with focus on the strategies employed by preschool teachers to support multilingual children’s language learning in play-activities, the data analyses are based on the theoretical foundations of bioecological and sociocultural theory (Barton, 2007; Bronfenbrenner, 1999; Vygotsky, 1962).

Paradigm, methodology and methods

The study has a mixed methods design where qualitative data were derived from the preschool teachers descriptions of their didactic strategies in supporting multilingual children, as well as quantitative data scoring eighteen dimensions of strategies in play-activities,  by using the scoring and  analysis tool, Social Language Environment - Domain, SLE-D (Norling, 2015).

Ethical Considerations

The study was carried out in accordance with the ethical principles of social sciences research (Ministry of Education and Research, 2017).

Main finding or discussion

Results regarding preschool staff’s descriptions and scored strategies to support multilingual children’s language and literacy learning in preschool play- activities will be presented.

Implications, practice or policy

This paper will contribute to a better understanding of how preschool teachers develop didactic strategies to support multilingual children’s language and literacy learning in preschool play- activities.

Keywords: social language environment, emergent literacy, multilingual, preschool, and play

The aim of this chapter is to contribute to visualize preschool staff approaches and strategies in the social language environment in order to make didactic and theoretical reflections to support children´s language and emergent literacy learning processes in the social language environment. Further, the theoretical foundation of social language environment are highlighted in order to make visible what may influences the preschool staff approaches. In addition the preschool staff´s efforts and interactions with the preschool children that are meaningful activities as well as the engine to children’s engagement and learning processes.

Children’s voices in early childhood education

Recently, there has been a developing interest concerning children’s voices in e.g. decision-making and planning of children within different educational contexts. In Sweden the preschool is viewed as an integral part of the national education policy and emphasize equal learning opportunities as well as children’s right to express their own opinion and be listened to. Although children’s rights are emphasized it is not clear how these rights are expressed in children’s everyday life. Methods focusing on highlighting children’s voices in educational contexts are needed. This presentation will discuss the methods of two research projects stressing children’s voices and perspectives. The first study, involving 30 children, aimed to describe how children view their participation in plans and decisions at preschool. Children were interviewed in two steps: a focus group interview using a puppet interview technique, playing different scenarios with the children as co-actors, and a photo walk in where children took photos of their preschool context and used these as stimulated recall in individual interviews to let the children express their participation in the preschool context.  An objective in the second study was to longitudinally explore the language environment in preschool to promote children’s abilities to think and express themselves. The teachers play a significant role in promoting this and thus an observational procedure involving 188 teachers was used to explore children’s interaction with adults. One teacher at a time was observed interacting with one child or a group of children and the interaction was classified according to the relational climate as well as to the degree of language development. The methods will be discussed in terms of the significance of bringing children’s voices to the front in educational contexts as well as in research aiming to promote children’s participation in issues that concerns their own everyday life. 

This study investigateslanguage-promoting strategies and support of concept development displayed bypreschool staffs´ when interacting with preschool children in literacy-relatedplay activities. The data analysed consisted of 39 minutes of video, selectedsystematically from a total of 11 hours of video material from six Swedishpreschool units. The selected sequences were play situations where preschoolstaff and child/children were present and teachers used strategies for creatinga high instructional climate. The results show that spontaneous play, dramaticplay, adult-initiated play and child-initiated play, as well as access toobjects or toys offer numerous opportunities in literacy-related playactivities to support children’s concept development. Results showed thatduring play activities, such events stimulated children’s language modellingand presented opportunities to increase the preschool children’s conceptdevelopment. However, more research is needed in this area, especiallyconcerning how preschool staffs´ participation, timing and sensitivity help supportchildren in literacy-related play activities.

The purpose of this paper is to make visible which language events may occur in literacy-related play activities in preschool and how multilingual and Swedish speaking preschool children are supported in these play activities. Previous research shows that preschool children have unique opportunities to develop their language and emergent literacy skills in literacy-related play activities in preschool (Nitecki & Chung, 2013; Saracho, 2004; Turnbull et al., 2009). The theoretical approach is based on Vygotsky’s social cultural theory and Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory which explores emergent literacy learning and development in a social context. In this study, data, in the form of video observations, was collected from six preschool units in three cities in Sweden, with children from one to five years old. Manifest content analysis, using both deductive and inductive approaches, was performed on the transcripts. The study was carried out in accordance with the ethical principles of social sciences research (Ministry of Education and Research, 2003). Preschool staff and

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parents were personally and in writing informed about the study. The parents gave written permission for their children to be part of the data collection. The results show that mainly during play activities, children sought confirmation of language concepts, to make sense of, and understand, the concepts based on earlier experiences. The findings show six themes of events in the literacy-related play activities. This paper will contribute to better understanding the preschool staff’s presence in play events and the unique opportunities afforded to develop both multilingual and Swedish speaking children´s language.

Language environment is highlighted as an important area in the early childhood education sector. The term language environment refers to language-promoting aspects of education, such as preschool staff’s use of verbal language in interacting with the children. There is a lack of research about language learning in outdoor environments; thus children’s language learning is mostly based on the indoor physical environment. The aim of this study is therefore to explore, analyse, and describe how preschool staff perceive language learning in outdoor environments. The data consists of focus-group interviews with 165 preschool staff members, conducted in three cities in Sweden. The study is meaningful, thus results contribute knowledge regarding preschool staffs’ understandings of language learning in outdoor environments and develop insights to help preschool staff stimulate children’s language learning in outdoor environments.

Children's ability to express thoughts, ideas, and needs is vital to their full participation in a democratic society. In the preschool environment, multiple opportunities to engage in emergent literacy practices may stimulate this ability. The study used an ecological development approach to investigate the language environment in Swedish preschools, focusing on the relationships among seven classroom quality dimensions. Children's engagement was measured by observing their active participation in emergent literacy practices. The results showed that positive climate, instructional learning formats and language modeling were the most significant contributors to engagement in emergent literacy practices. To conclude, children's engagement in emergent literacy practices seems to benefit from a positive climate and needs and uses instructional discussions and activities in the everyday situations in preschool.

This study is a part of a small research project designed as action research project. The aim of this study in which six preschool teachers participated in focus group interviews, is to increase understanding about preschool teachers’ didactic work to create conditions for multilingual children’s emergent literacy development in preschool. The preschool teachers’ descriptions show that multilingualism is seen as part of everyday life and not for specific occasions. In the analysis of the preschool teachers’ statements, four important conditions for literacy development emerge; learning environment, language practices, text practices and play activities. In terms of support for multilingual children, preschool teachers say that cooperation with parents has a significant role for children’s emergent literacy development.

This study highlights the importance of paying attention to multilingual children’s emergent literacy processes already in preschool.

The aim of this study was to investigate, analyze and describe how preschool teachers experience the educational support for children in need of special support. In this interview study, the preschool teachers emphasize educational support to children in need of special support from two perspectives. In the first perspective, the preschool teachers stated that they don't do anything unique for children in need of special support, versus the view that the children need and receive more help from the staff in everyday preschool activities. In the second perspective, the preschool teachers point out the specific educational support within two themes, indirect and direct support. This study has implications for both practice and theory as it increases the knowledge and understanding about educational support that children in need of special support are offered in preschool today.

The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of teachers’ perspectives on promoting reading and writing for pupils with various linguistic backgrounds in grade 1. Focus group interviews were conducted with 17 teachers who work in preschool classes and in grade 1. The teachers’ perspectives on reading and writing can be characterised as balanced, in the sense that the teachers describe how they work with both the technical and the learning-oriented dimension. The number of different languages spoken in their classes is regarded in a positive manner, but it also leads to major challenges, such as not having enough time for all of the pupils and not having sufficient knowledge of multilingualism.