Abstract
This study investigates the emergence of literacy-related discourse in spontaneous peer interactions among kindergarten-aged children. It focuses on how children naturally engage in “acts of distancing”—discursive strategies that shift language from the immediate, personal context toward more abstract, generalized, or reflective expression. These include nominalizations, impersonal constructions, categorical reasoning, and metalinguistic awareness, aligning with features of paradigmatic literacy typically associated with academic discourse. Participants were 30 children (ages 5–6) in two secular kindergartens in Israel. Over 25 hours of peer interactions were video-recorded during daily routines. Using conversation analysis transcription and discourse-oriented qualitative analysis, we identified and closely examined argumentative episodes. The study traced how distancing and paradigmatic features surfaced organically in children’s own language, and how these forms served both social coordination and reflective meaning-making. Findings reveal that even without adult guidance, children use language in ways that support abstraction, epistemic positioning, and literate thinking. Peer discourse operates alongside and differently from teacher-child interaction: while adult scaffolding often prompts explicit abstraction, peer talk fosters it implicitly—through affect-rich negotiation, spontaneous reflection, and shared inquiry. In an era of increasing digital mediation and adult-driven learning, these findings call attention to the developmental significance of unstructured peer conversations. Such talk may constitute a foundational bridge between informal, child-led discourse and the more formalized, explicit literacy practices encountered in adult-led instruction. By tracing the continuum from everyday peer interaction to paradigmatic discourse, this study deepens our understanding of how literacy begins—in language, in thought, and in relationship.
Presenters
Sara Zadunaisky EhrlichSenior Lecturer, Education, Beit Berl Academic College, University of Haifa, Israel
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Early Literacy, Peer Talk, Peer Argumentation, Distanced Language, Paradigmatic Discourse
