Multilingual children’s imaginative worlds and their language use: A chronotopic analysis

Aims and objectives: This study applies the notion of chronotope as an analytical tool to explore role globalization, immigration, transnationalism in shaping multilingual children’s awareness use semiotic resources changing social contexts. Design/methodology/approach: is a part ongoing collaborative autoethnography (CAE), which data come from second author’s cross-cultural transnational family are shared with first author for interpretation analysis. Data analysis: were collected through recording observations language practices nine-year-old girl family, including her plays on own or peers outside home. An ethnographically grounded discourse-analytic approach was employed analyzing data. Findings/conclusions: Despite rich linguistic cultural repertoire, child situated English higher scale level hierarchically layered system, she found imaginative play space could not only repertoire but also certain chronotopes. She demonstrated skills drawing variation within index personae. Originality: The originality lies, first, uniqueness case being Indian-Iranian and, second, unique methodology—using chronotopes theoretical analytic analyze audio-recorded interactions child’s plays. Significance/implications: has implications our understanding how children pick up indexical meanings choices reproduce them their worlds. It sheds light ideologies reproduced by may result hierarchization power difference between varieties.