The international scientific conference focuses on the question: How do children acquire not only words, but also gestures, facial expressions and other physical forms of expression as well as their communicative and situational use? With the help of video studies in particular, the contributions from the perspective of language socialisation research examine how this learning takes place in very different interaction situations and language communities - when playing with siblings, when reading aloud in the family, in conversations with peers or in the classroom.

"The research opens up new insights into how communicative practices are mediated and appropriated and how social relationships and identities are negotiated at the same time," summarises Vivien Heller. The professor teaches language didactics at the University of Wuppertal and is organising the conference.

Empowering teachers to strengthen children individually

The findings from the studies presented can help to shape education in such a way that children - whether growing up with one or more languages - are even better supported in their linguistic and social development. "If we understand how children learn language and communication and what differences can be recognised, then we can - for example - train school teachers to design their lessons in such a way that they strengthen children individually."

With this in mind, it was also particularly important to Heller to have a strong international line-up at the conference: "The exchange across different language communities provides us with exciting insights and comparisons that help us to align language learning with the diversity of people and their different needs and abilities."

Living together shapes language development

However, the findings are not only interesting for school practice. Parents recognise themselves in the question of how playful teasing in the family or shared reading times contribute to language development.

Vivien Heller gives another example from everyday family life: "At dinner, a child talks about what they experienced in kindergarten. The parents ask questions, add their own impressions or casually convey communicative expectations. The child not only learns new words, but also how to tell a story in an exciting way, when it's okay to interrupt others - and when not - and how to keep their attention".

She and her colleagues will shed light on all of this over three days under the conference title "Language Socialization Across Contexts" (pdf download programme) in the guest house on the Freudenberg campus.

The conference, funded by the German Research Foundation, is organised by the University of Wuppertal. It is an activity of the university's newly founded Interdisciplinary Centre for Language Teaching and Learning (IZSLL). The centre brings together the expertise of academics whose work focuses on different languages, language teaching and learning and teacher training, and aims to contribute to a better understanding of the interplay between language, language learning and identity constructions. Among other things, the aim is to derive conditions conducive to learning that have a positive impact on participation in education.