Investigating language pratices in families and kindergarten classrooms: Theoretical and methodological foundations

Abstract

In Switzerland, there is a strong correlation between the social backgrounds and language outcomes of children already at school entry. At the same time, very little is known about their home learning experiences and language education in preschool institutions. This article deals with methodological and theoretical foundations pertinent to investigate language practices. In the first section, methodological premises and implications are discussed. In the second section, we present the notion of laguage as social practice and illustrate our understanding by means of selected data from our research project “Worlds of learning – literacies”. Finally, some perspectives for future classroom research on language education and for teacher qualification are outlined.