Emerald Group Publishing Limited Friendship and Peer Culture in Multilingual Settings: 21 (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, 21)

Authors of this book discover the intricacies of friendship and peer cultures of children in multilingual settings. Volume 21 brings together empirical research from across the globe, and from various methodological and theoretical orientations to investigate children's relationships within multilingual settings such as school, home, community and online. Diverse views of children and young people on cross-cultural relationships offer rich and valuable findings and contribute new knowledge for policy makers, social workers, educators and parents about strategies children use to make friends. Internationally, the linguistic diversity of communities in the minority world is at its highest to date. With increasing numbers of children learning a language other than their home language at school or other places, it is important to understand the nature of the social relationships that children and youth are experiencing in their everyday lives in order to improve their chances of successful social experiences in the future. Applying a sociological perspective, this volume features the rich, varied and complex aspects of children's experiences of friendship in multilingual settings. Review The studies in this volume add to prior work in many important ways. First, the studies provide new insights with data across a wide range of cultural groups on how second language children in multilingual settings establish peer relations, friendship, and fit into subculture groups in establishing peer cultures where they are learning and using the dominant or official language along with their own mother tongues. Secondly, they address the complexities and intricacies of friendship processes in multilingual settings the researchers rely on with a wide range of traditional and innovative methods (often involving mixed methods). Third, all of the studies provide important applied educational implications for second language learners in a wide variety of culturally diverse pedagogical philosophies, circumstances, and settings. Finally, the recognition and demonstration of the potential of bilingualism in a global world and economy is in some of the studies linked to the children’s active participation (through language practices, routines, and narratives) in their families and communities. -- Annotation ©2017 ― (protoview.com) About the Author Maryanne Theobald, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Loretta E. Bass, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA