Play, Culture and Learning: Studies of Second-Language and Conceptual Development in Swedish Preschools

The thesis has investigated how the development of a second language and conceptual understanding emerges through interactions in Swedish kindergartens. It looks at how different types of interaction and play can build scaffolding around this development.

The studies in the thesis are based on interaction as multimodal and embodied, and explore how children use and develop their second language, or the understanding of abstract concepts, through a number of communicative methods besides language.

The results regarding second language development show how the children can play together despite not sharing a common language, and that this is possible through the characteristics of play, which are based on rules and tacit knowledge of relevant cultural patterns. The kindergarten teachers also participate in the play, through so-called guided play, which provides opportunities to build scaffolding for the children. The author argues that play in kindergarten can serve as an arena where children can interact and imitate the cultural rules and patterns that surround them, thereby allowing them to practice their second language. Furthermore, the results show that kindergartens facilitate children’s participation through their cultural patterns and imitable structures. In this way, kindergartens offer the children cultural affordances that the children bring along to the play.

The results relating to the development of conceptual understanding are based on the assumption that children learn through the use of cultural tools and artefacts, and that this is a highly perceptual and embodied process for the kindergarten child. The author gives examples of how kindergartens create environments and activities that provide opportunities for conceptual development, not least through the use of digital tools, which also allow kindergarten teachers to appropriate the children’s play universe into a pedagogical project. The kindergarten teacher’s scaffold-building interaction, and the use of affordances in tools and the environment, allow children to reflect on the concepts in a more conscious manner. 

The author concludes that the results show just how important non-verbal interaction resources can be for the development of second languages and conceptual understanding. The thesis thus emphasises how these are embodied processes for the child’s development that are integrated with the building of social scaffolding and environmental affordances. Based on this, the author argues for a broader view of building scaffolding that includes the perceptual and the affordances in the environment, which may be of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

The data was collected over two separate periods. The first piece of fieldwork followed two newly arrived children who learned a new language during their time in kindergarten. The second piece of fieldwork was carried out with a group of children in a science project on the scientific concept of spin.

Samuelsson, R. (2019). “Play, Culture and Learning: Studies of Second-Language and Conceptual Development in Swedish Preschools”. Akademisk avhandling. Södertörns högskola.