Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T01:13:55.930Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Multilingualism and Language Play

from Part Two - Cognition and Faculties in Multilinguals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2022

By
Xiao-lei Wang
Edited by
Anat Stavans  and
Ulrike Jessner
Anat Stavans
Affiliation:
Beit Berl College, Israel
Ulrike Jessner
Affiliation:
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria
Get access

Summary

Children have an intuitive predilection to play with language and respond to language play. Multilingual children may demonstrate additional talents and characteristics in using language playfully as a result of being able to access multiple cultural and linguistic resources. This chapter provides an overview of the effects of multilingualism on children’s language play by first addressing how language play is used by children who are learning a new language in the classroom environment. It then presents a case study of how two simultaneous trilingual siblings displayed their dexterity in the use of ludic language in the everyday context. The evidence suggests that multilingual children tend to use language play to transcend the linguistic norms of their ambient languages to negotiate meaning, leverage their communicative intents, and develop their unique multilingual identity. The chapter suggests that multilingual children tend to use language play to synthesize hybrid elements from their languages and cultures and create a wide variety of new meanings that no single linguistic system can offer. This syncretic nature of multilingual children’s language play enables them to develop a nuanced and creative manner of communication.

Keywords

multilingual language playmultilingual creativitymultilingual competencemultilingual discourse strategy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Childhood Multilingualism , pp. 235 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abuhandeh, S., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2012). The importance of challenge for the enjoyment of intrinsically motivated, goal-directed activities. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(3), 317–30.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). The Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, trans. Emerson, C.. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, L. A. (1990). Developmental benefits of play for children. Journal of Leisure Research, 22(2), 138–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, J. (2014). Double-Voicing at Work: Power, Gender and Linguistic Expertise. London: Palgrave Pivot.Google Scholar
Bell, N. D. (2005). Exploring L2 language play as an aid to SLL: A case study of humour in NS–NNS interaction. Applied Linguistics, 26(2), 192–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, N. D. (2012). Comparing playful and nonplayful incidental attention to form. Language Learning, 62(1), 236–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belz, J. A. (2002). Second language play as a representation of the multicompetent self in foreign language study. Journal of Language, identity & Education, 1(1), 13–39.Google Scholar
Belz, J. A., & Reinhardt, J. (2004). Aspects of advanced foreign language proficiency: Internet-mediated German language play. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(3), 324–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (1988). Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. Developmental Psychology, 24(4), 560–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(1), 3–11.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Martin, M. M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science, 7(3), 325–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackledge, A., & Creese, A (2009). Meaning-making as dialogic process: Official and carnival lives in the language classroom, Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 8(4), 236–53.Google Scholar
Bongartz, C., & Schneider, M. L. (2003). Linguistic development in social contexts: A study of two brothers learning German. Modern Language Journal, 87(1), 13–37.Google Scholar
Booth-Butterfield, S., & Booth-Butterfield, M. (1991). Individual differences in the communication of humorous messages. Southern Communication Journal, 56(3), 205–18.Google Scholar
Broner, M. A., & Tarone, E. E. (2001). Is it fun? Language play in a fifth-grade Spanish immersion classroom. Modern Language Journal, 85(3), 363–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1983). Child’s Talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S., & Sherwood, V. (1975). Peekaboo and the learning of rule structures. In Bruner, J. S., Jolly, A., & Sylva, K., eds., Play: Its Role in Development and Evolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp. 277–85.Google Scholar
Burrell, A., & Beard, R. (2018). Playing with words: Investigating the use of language play in the persuasive writing of 9–11-year-olds. Education, 46(2), 202–17.Google Scholar
Bushnell, C. (2009). “Lego my keego!” An analysis of language play in a beginning Japanese as a foreign language classroom. Applied Linguistics, 30(1), 49–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Čekaitė, A., & Aronsson, K. (2005). Language play, a collaborative resource in children’s L2 learning. Applied Linguistics, 26(2), 169–91.Google Scholar
Clark, E. (1975). Knowledge, context, and strategy in the acquisition of meaning. In Dato, D. P. (ed.), Developmental Psycholinguistics: Theory and Applications. Georgetown University Round Table 1975. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 77–98.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V., Gelman, S., & Lane, N. M. (1985). Compound nouns and category structure in young children. Child Development, 56(1), 84–94.Google Scholar
Cook, G. (1997). Language play, language learning. ELT Journal, 51(3), 224–31.Google Scholar
Cook, G. (2000). Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, G. (2001). “The philosopher pulled the lower jaw of the hen.” Ludicrous invented sentences in language teaching.” Applied Linguistics, 22(3), 366–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, V. (1992). Evidence foe multicompetence. Language Learning, 42, 557–91.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. (1998). Language Play. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cumming, R. (2007). Language play in the classroom: Encouraging children’s intuitive creativity with words through poetry. Literacy, 41(2), 93–98.Google Scholar
Duranti, A., & Ochs, E. (1986). Literacy instruction in a Samoan village. In Schieffelin, B. B. & Gilmore, P., eds., Discourse, Tools, and Reasoning: Essays on Situated Cognition. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Elbers, L. (1988). New names from old words: Related aspects of children’s metaphors and word compounds. Journal of Child Language, 15(3), 591–617.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Esposito, A. (1980). Children’s play with language. Child Study Journal, 10, 207–17.Google Scholar
Freire, P. (1983). Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Garland, J. (2010). “I am under cool”: Humorous mock-translation as a claim to expertise in an Irish language class. Sociolinguistic Studies, 4(1), 27–44.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2018). Introducing Discourse Analysis: From Grammar to Society. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, K. D. (2014). Integrative research review: Syncretic approach to literacy learning. Leveraging horizontal knowledge and expertise. In Dunston, P. et al., eds., 63rd Literacy Research Association Yearbook. Alamonte Springs: Literacy Research Association.Google Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoff, E. (2013). Language Development. Belmont: Wadsworth.Google ScholarPubMed
Hoffmann, C. (2001). Towards the description of trilingual competence. International Journal of Bilingualism, 5(1), 1–17.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, C., & Stavans, A. (2007). The evolution of trilingual code-switching from infancy to school age: The shaping of trilingual competence through dynamic language dominance. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11(1), 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoicka, E., & Akhtar, N. (2011). Preschoolers joke with jokers, but correct foreigners. Developmental Science, 14(4), 848–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hol, D., & Yavvz, A. (2017). The role of socio economic status on the EFL learners’ attributions on success and failure. Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, 5(9), 29–38.Google Scholar
Holmes, R. (2011). Parental notions about their children’s playfulness and children’s notions of play in the United States and Hong Kong. In Reifel, S., ed., Play and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, Theory in Context and Out. Westport: Ablex, pp. 291–314.Google Scholar
Hurt, H., & Betancourt, L. M. (2016). Effect of socioeconomic status disparity on child language and neural outcome: How early is early? Pediatric Research, 79(1), 148–58.Google Scholar
Kharkhurin, A. V. (2012). Multilingualism and Creativity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y., & Kellogg, D. (2007). Rules out of roles: Differences in play language and their developmental significance. Applied Linguistics, 28(1), 25–45.Google Scholar
Kramsch, C. (2009). The Multilingual Subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. (1982). Language play and language acquisition. Advances in Child Development and Behaviors, 17, 197–232.Google Scholar
Lantolf, J. P. (1997). Language play and the acquisition of L2 Spanish. In Glass, W. R. & Perez-Leroux, A.- T., eds., Contemporary Perspectives on the Acquisition of Spanish: Vol. 2. Production, Processing and Comprehension. Somerville: Cascadilla Press, pp. 3–35.Google Scholar
Laursen, H. P., & Kolstrup, K. L. (2018). Multilingual children between real and imaginary worlds: Language play as resignifying practice. Applied Linguistics, 39(6), 799–822.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavrakas, P. J. (2008). Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Levy, A. K. (1984) (2006 online). The language of play: The role of play in language development: A review of literature. Early Child Development and Care, 17(1), 49–61.Google Scholar
Lytra, V. (2007). Play Frames and Social Identities. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Martin, M., & Vaughn, B. (2007). Cultural competence: The nuts and bolts of diversity and inclusion. Strategic Diversity & Inclusion Management, 1(1), 31–38.Google Scholar
Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132–41.Google Scholar
Ohta, A. S. (2001). Second Language Acquisition Processes in the Classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford, R. L. (1997). Cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and interaction: Three communicative strands in the language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 443–56.Google Scholar
Peck, S. (1980). Language play in child second language acquisition. In Larsen-Freeman, D., ed., Discourse Analysis in Second Language Research. Rowley: Newbury House, pp. 154–64.Google Scholar
Pomerantz, A., & Bell, N. D. (2007). Learning to play, playing to learn: FL learners as multicompetent language users, Applied Linguistics, 28(4), 556–78.Google Scholar
Pomerantz, A., & Bell, N. D. (2011). Humor as safe house in the foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 95, 148–61.Google Scholar
Rubio-Fernández, P. (2016). Why are bilinguals better than monolinguals at false-belief tasks? Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 24(3), 987–98.Google Scholar
Saville-Troike, M., & Kleifgen, J. A. (1989). Culture and language in classroom communication. In Garcia, O. & Otheguy, R., eds., English across Cultures, Cultures across English: A Reader in Cross Cultural Communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Sawyer, R. K. (1996). Role voicing, gender, and age in preschool play discourse. Discourse Processes, 22, 289–307.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1968). Antonymic phonetic symbolism in three natural languages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(3), 301–05.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Socha, T. J., & Kelly, B. (1994). Children making “fun”: Humorous communication, impression management. Child Study Journal, 24(3), 237–52.Google Scholar
Swain, M. (2000). The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In Lantolf, J. P., ed., Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 97–114.Google Scholar
Talmy, S. (2010). Achieving distinction through mock ESL: A critical pragmatics analysis of classroom talk in a high school. In Kasper, G., Nguyen, H. T, Yushimi, D., & Yushioka, J., eds., Pragmatics and Language Learning 12. Honolulu: University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, pp. 215–54.Google Scholar
Tare, M., & Gelman, S. A. (2010). Can you say it another way? Cognitive factors in bilingual children’s pragmatic language skills. Journal of Cognition and Development, 11(2),137–58.Google Scholar
Tarone, E. (2000). Getting serious about language play: Language play, interlanguage variation and second language acquisition. In Swierzbin, B., Morris, F., Anderson, M., Klee, C., & Tarone, E., eds., Social and Cognitive Factors in SLA: Proceedings of the 1999 Second Language Research Forum. Somerville: Cascadilla Press, pp. 31–54.Google Scholar
Varga, D. (2000) Hyperbole and humor in children’s language play. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 14(2), 142–51.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wang, X.-L. (2008). Growing Up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Wang, X.-L. (2015). Maintaining Three Languages: The Teenage Years. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Waring, H. Z. (2012). Doing being playful in the second language classroom. Applied Linguistics, 34(2), 191–210.Google Scholar
Weir, R. H. (1962). Language in the Crib. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Windsor, J. (1993). The functions of novel word compounds. Journal of Child Language, 20, 119–38.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. (1993). The functions of novel word compounds. Journal of Child Language, 20(1), 119–38.Google Scholar
Wolf, D. P., & Pusch, J. (1985). The origins of autonomous texts in play. In Galda, L. & Pellegrini, A. D., eds., Play, Language, and Stories: The Development of Children’s Literate Behavior. Norwood: Ablex, pp. 63–77.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×