At blive et børnehavebarn: En minoritetsdrengs sprog, interaktion og deltagelse i børnefællesskabet.

This dissertation concerns socialisation in kindergarten in connection with language development. The purpose of the dissertation is to provide new insights into the language used by children in play activities at kindergarten and the acquisition of Danish as a second language in kindergarten. On this basis, the dissertation aims to contribute to the discussion of how social, linguistic and communicative factors are interrelated and how these factors can cause children not to thrive in a children's community.

The analyses in the dissertation point out that linguistic and social development are not necessarily in proportion. Positive social positioning can sometimes be achieved despite little linguistic effort,
while positive, progressive language development is not always related to
general, positive social development. The acquisition of Danish as a second language by the child focused on in this dissertation was progressive, however, he became increasingly marginalised and withdrew from group activities. Therefore, by developing linguistic experience, the child will not necessarily gain a more inclusive position in the children’s community nor a more advantageous position in play activities. Greater linguistic experience may perhaps even have the opposite effect. At a more detailed level, the constructional grammar analyses show that the language acquisition of the child in question is lexically anchored rather than generalised, and that language development cannot be described linearly. The interactional analysis shows that the child's use of repetition cannot be regarded as a simple and safe way to participate in child-oriented activities. Participation in specific activities often involves strategic and context-sensitive positioning, and the roles and positions achieved by the child do not depend entirely on his own wishes. The child is helped and limited, respectively, by kindergarten veterans, depending on how his wishes and expectations match theirs. Furthermore, the results of the negotiations on participation greatly depend on the child itself and the mutual relations and mutual positions of the other participants, as well as on the temporal context in which the negotiations take place. The child on which this study focuses uses previous interactional contributions increasingly, but positions himself more towards the other children than in line with them during the examination period, as he is oriented towards negotiation and towards his own rights. The child only achieves a position as a member of the children's community when he orients himself clearly towards the norms and practices of the children’s group.

The study is an ethnographic study. The data consist of observations recorded on video and audio. This dissertation presents a longitudinal study of a three-year-old boy with a minority background during the first nine months of his time in kindergarten. A combination of methods are applied including ethnographic (e.g. interactive observation), linguistic (e.g. construction grammar) and conversation analysis.

Karrebæk, M. S. (2008). At blive et børnehavebarn: En minoritetsdrengs sprog, interaktion og deltagelse i børnefællesskabet. København: Københavns Universitet.

Karrebæk, M. S. (2010). "Må jeg være med?": børnehavebørns brug og tilegnelse af dansk som andetsprog. I. Arnfast, J. S. og Karrebæk, M.S. (red) Tungen lige i munden. Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed (43). København: Det Humanistiske Fakultet på Københavns Universitet, s. 53-85.