Practices of inclusion/exclusion in and through classroom dialogue

Abstract

Abstract The paper explores non-native children’s peer socialization to norms of literacy and appropriate language use in the classroom. Drawing on ethnographic research in a primary school in northern Italy, this study adopts a CA-informed approach to analyze an Italian L2 class attended by children aged 8 to 10. The study focuses on children’s enacting of correction sequences following peers’ problematic conduct. As the analysis illustrates, children creatively re-produce teachers’ ways of speaking to enforce normative uses of language. Through these practices, non-native children socialize their classmates into expected ways of speaking, reading, and writing, and negotiate the social hierarchy of the peer group. Risks and opportunities of such practices are considered in relation to children’s social inclusion and exclusion.