“He will see my drawing and we will play blindman’s bluff together” Overcoming communication barriers in a multicultural kindergarten classroom

Abstract

Peer interactions and play have been highlighted as key factors for immigrant children’s smooth transition and participation in a new language and cultural context. Taking a sociocultural stance towards children’s participation in early childhood education (ECE) and considering that their communication acts are always multimodal, in this study, we sought to examine peer interactions during play in a Greek multicultural kindergarten with high concentrations of immigrant and refugee students. Data derived from systematic observation of free play activities, semi-structured interviews, and a drawing-telling activity aimed to figure out all children’s ways of acting and communicating. Findings provide further evidence on how material and embodied signs function as means that mediate play and contribute to sustained interactions between children with different linguistic backgrounds, while they reveal the potential of drawing to function as communicational means in multilingual settings.

Keywords

• Peer interaction and play
• immigrant children’s participation
• multimodal communication
• early childhood education