Reframing Language Teaching in ECEC Through Academic Languaging

Abstract in English

This thesis investigates academic language teaching in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, with a particular focus on multilingual children’s academic language development. Academic language is more complex and abstract than everyday language, and recent research emphasizes the need to foster children’s academic language skills in early education. The study contributes insights into teachers’ perspectives on language teaching and how language teaching that aims to develop children’s academic language can be orga-nized and carried out.

The thesis advocates a shift from traditional, implicit stimulation to intentional academic language teaching to better support multilingual children. The study’s combination of theories of language, multi-lingualism, and teaching offers a foundation for explicit academic language teaching.

A mixed-methods approach was used, in which two interconnected studies were undertaken. A survey study identified four teacher profiles, demonstrating differences in teaching strategies, multilingual awareness, organizational conditions, and perceptions of being a linguistic role model. A practice-based study developed an empirically grounded, theoretically informed teaching model. Seven teachers tested and refined, in two iterations, the six-step model Academic Languaging.