My research interest is related to issues concerning children’s linguistic socialisation with a special focus on literacy environments during their early grades in institutionalized settings. In this paper I would like to discuss some theoretical and methodological points of departure in my doctoral research. The theoretical framework for my study is based upon a sociocultural approach to the understanding of language, learning and development. The study is methodologically inspired from an ethnographic point of departure. From a sociocultural approach individuals are viewed as embedded in culture which means that development and learning are seen as taking place between individuals in communicative and interactive processes in different kinds of social practices. My standpoint is that children’s early socialisation into literacy also needs to be understood as an ongoing process which develops interactively and not only as cognitive processes within an individual child.
I intend to follow a group of children for the first two years in the compulsory school system (preschool year [6 years] and grade 1 [7 year]) in order to try and understand what kind of
literacy practices that children receive opportunities to participate in. At present my research questions are: In what ways are children in a preschool group exposed to written language and how are they encouraged to participate in literacy activities? What kinds of literacy practices do children encounter in the preschool setting and in the grade 1 setting? In what ways are children’s previous literacy and cultural experiences used as resources in the two settings?
During the spring term of 2003 a pilot study will be carried out in a preschool group. Preliminary findings from the pilot study will be discussed in this paper.