The current study explored language socialisation experience of young children at an English immersion nursery school in Japan. The study aimed to provide detailed descriptions of language socialisation practices in an English immersion school by analysing, interpreting, and discussing naturally occurring ethnographic data. It also demonstrated and examined children’s agentive participation in language socialisation to validate the working definition of child agency that the current study presented.
The research conducted the data collection at Mountain View English Nursery School, a private nursery school that offered an English immersion programme. Ethnographic methods collected observation data of naturally occurring interactions, interview data of parents and teachers, and other relevant data of the nursery school and the participants. The data analysis implemented the qualitative content analysis approach.
Language socialisation at an English immersion nursery school consisted of those of the English-speaking teachers, the Japanese-speaking teachers, and the children. The English-speaking teachers socialised children into one way of learning English, and the Japanese-speaking teachers socialised them into another way. The conflicting ideologies and socialisation practices of the teachers created hybrid language socialisation practices that are unique to the nursery school. The children at the nursery school also socialised peers and teachers by implementing and applying their social competence and linguistic knowledge to various strategies.
The findings in the current study demonstrated the dynamic, multi-directional, and complex process of language socialisation at an English immersion nursery school, where the children are socialised to multiple ideas and practices while they also use their acquired knowledge to socialise others.
