Language and Education· 2026Q1
Young students’ language puzzling and linguistic reasoning
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Young students (aged 7-8) can demonstrate linguistic reasoning through playful syntactic puzzles without formal metalanguage, using informal talk, gestures, and physical manipulation.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Young students (7-8 years old) can express linguistic reasoning through playful syntactic puzzles.
- Reasoning is demonstrated without formal metalanguage, relying on informal talk, gestures, and physical manipulation.
- An adult dialogue partner plays a key role in scaffolding students' linguistic reasoning.
- The activity is based on students' own written texts, making it relevant to their experiences.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This study explores how young learners’ linguistic reasoning can be scaffolded and come to expression. Conducted within a larger project on early writing, the study is based on video-recorded dialogues with eight students (aged 7–8) engaged in a playful syntactic puzzle activity, based on their own written texts and scaffolded by an adult dialogue partner. Thematic analyses reveal that the students are able to manipulate and reflect on various linguistic structures and their rhetorical effects. Notably, they demonstrate how linguistic reasoning may be expressed without formal metalanguage, rather employing informal talk, gestures, intonation, and physical manipulation of language structures. A key premise is a linguistically knowledgeable dialogue partner. By focusing on primary school students, these findings may contribute to widening the scope of linguistic reasoning as well as offering insights into language and literacy education.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Language and Education, 2026 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Literature and Literary Theory
Literature and Literary TheoryArts and Humanities