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Research Office
Title: Peer Negotiations, Emergent Literacy, and Academic Discourse: Mexican-Heritage Children’s Narrative Development, Theory-Building, and Social Alignment in Peer Pretend Play and Peer-Based Story-Telling Practices in Preschool
Principal Investigator: Amy Kyratzis
Total Project Amount: $20,000
Agency: UC Linguisitic Minority Research Institute
Project Dates: 07/01/2007 – 03/31/2009
Abstract:
This study expands a previous UCLMRI study (“Peer Talk and Emergent Literacy: Mexian-Heritage Children’s Peer Negotiations, Narratives, and Learning in Peer Play and Peer-Based Story-Acting Out Practices in Preschool”). The previous study examined how low-income bilingual preschool-aged children of Mexican heritage negotiated with their peers, and how these peer negotiations supported their use of decontextualized language. The present study continues the examination of how narrative discourse is used by children in peer interactions, and adds to this inquiry the examination of children’s explanatory discourse, another type of academic language. It extends the previous study by introducing less familiar themes and materials into children’s play, to examine how these occasion narrative and explanatory discourse.