The matter of silence in early childhood bilingual education

The purpose of the study is to investigate how three different ways of reading children’s silence require different understandings of time and language, and the way in which adults see the bilingual child. The three alternative ways to understand children’s silence are described in this article as: silence as development, silence as strategy and silence as intensity. In terms of silence as development, children’s silence is interpreted as the absence of language. The child does not speak because it does not understand, or because it lacks an understanding of the rules of politeness. One can also interpret the children’s silence as a strategy where one understands the absence of language as a speech act in itself: the child does not speak in order to show resistance or to protect itself. The third understanding, silence as intensity, interprets the silence as part of relationships between all what is said and not said in the situation, what is seen, heard and sensed. According to this view, silence is not an empty space, but can also accommodate emotions such as curiosity, fascination and amazement.

The analysis shows that the employees understand the child’s silence as a lack of understanding (silence as development). The author believes that the analysis shows that interpretation of children’s silence as development or strategy is individually oriented, chronologically and linguistically oriented understandings. They see the silent, bilingual child as more or less competent, active and potent in the relationship with adults. If, on the other hand, one sees the child’s silence as an intensity, one understands the silence as a collective product and somewhat temporally unbound. According to this understanding, the child’s silence is part of and must be interpreted in light of the entire linguistic and non-linguistic context. The evasive and inconsistent nature of silence means that all three interpretations in one and the same situation can be equally (im)possible. Nevertheless, the author believes it is important to pay attention to them, because they produce different reactions and raise several questions that deal with bilingual pedagogical practices in kindergartens.

The empirical source data consists of a video recording of a mealtime in a bilingual kindergarten, with a Swedish-Spanish language profile. Both languages are used in the kindergarten’s everyday activities, and the staff speak both Swedish and Spanish together with the children. The study analyses the interaction between a 3-4 year old girl and two kindergarten employees during a lunch meal.

Martín-Bylund, A. (2018). “The matter of silence in early childhood bilingual education”. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(4):349-358.