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How the Materiality of Mobile Video Chats Shapes Emergent Language Learning Practices in Early Childhood

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Emergent Practices and Material Conditions in Learning and Teaching with Technologies

Abstract

Language learning practices are shaped by their material conditions. Using an action research case study intervention, this chapter shows how the introduction of mobile video chats for children learning a home language creates the material conditions for language engagement and participation practice to emerge that encourage the learning of the home language in additional contexts. The mobile video chat’s concomitant role in enacting change in the children’s home language learning practices facilitates home language learning in authentic and meaningful interactions. The material characteristics of the microphone, the web-camera, the loudspeaker, Skype and the portability of the tablet together with the material characteristics of their physical environment have the potential to enact change in children’s additional language learning through listening, seeing, speaking, moving, and showing in virtual interaction with a grandparent as adult conversational partner.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden

    Christian Waldmann

  2. Department of Language Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Kirk P. H. Sullivan

Authors
  1. Christian Waldmann
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  2. Kirk P. H. Sullivan
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Correspondence to Kirk P. H. Sullivan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Kista, Stockholm, Sweden

    Teresa Cerratto Pargman

  2. School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA

    Isa Jahnke

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Waldmann, C., Sullivan, K.P.H. (2019). How the Materiality of Mobile Video Chats Shapes Emergent Language Learning Practices in Early Childhood. In: Cerratto Pargman, T., Jahnke, I. (eds) Emergent Practices and Material Conditions in Learning and Teaching with Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10764-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10764-2_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10763-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10764-2

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