Browsing by Author "Wegelius, Emma"

The purpose of this study is to look at bilingualism from a child orientated perspective. The study concentrates on children’s use of language and on their thoughts about Finnish and Swedish. The term language use meaning how children use languages when communicating with people and in different situations. The study is based on theories concerning children’s language development, use of language and learning of a second language. The study was carried out as a qualitative research and was based on observations and interviews. The observations were implemented in a preschool on three days in the mornings and the number of interviews was four. The choice of persons for the interviews was based on the child’s language skills in both Finnish and Swedish, with the parents’ consent in mind. The research material was analyzed in relation to the presented theory, according to the factors in an individual-oriented analysis model and by compilation of children’s comments. According to the results the children’s use of language is determined by the other person and the situation where the discussion is taking place. Even the topic of the discussion has an impact on the choice on language. Whereas code-switching has an impact both on the child and on the function of the interaction. The children’s thoughts about Finnish and Swedish show a positive attitude towards bilingualism even though Finnish seem to have a higher value among the children. The children’s thoughts seem to be influenced by the social environment and the children have a wish of going against the grown-ups rules about the spoken language.