In Sweden, the majority of children enter the preschool between the first and second year. 15 % of the children in preschool have another ethnic background than Swedish. These children are learning two of more languages in different contexts from the early age. According to the Curriculum for the Preschool (National Agency for Education 2006) each child should be given possibilities for developing their languages and cultures. In practise, Swedish is used in the preschool. My PhD thesis in progress focuses on toddlers. It explores the communication experiences of 10 children (aged 1.6 to 3 years), whose second language is Swedish. The study focuses on meaning-making processes in peer communication talk in preschool context i.e. how the toddlers understand and make themselves understood in interaction in the Swedish preschool context. The aim of the conference paper is to study how the toddlers create shared understanding in peer interaction. The theoretical framework used is interactional theories on learning and development (Vygotsky 1934/1986; Säljö 2000; Nelson 1996; Ninio & Snow 1996). Children’s second language learning has traditionally been studied in child adult interaction. However, studies of peer talk show the importance of communication between children for pragmatic development (Blum-Kulka, Huck-Taglicht & Avni 2004). Yet, systematic studies within this area are rare (Katz 2004).

The fieldwork was carried out in eight preschool groups over a six-month period and consisted of video-recorded observations of children in communication and interaction with other children and teachers. However, the conference presentation consists of an interaction analysis on three children within three preschool groups. The selection is based on evaluation of quality conducted with a revised version of the Early Childhood Rating Scale (ECERS) (Harms & Clifford 1980; Sheridan, Johansson & Pramling Samuelsson manuscript) done within the project Children’ Early Learning. These three children have different first languages and only one of the children share the first language with other children in the preschool group. The concepts used in the analysis is four dimensions of interaction; the nature of the activity, thematic frames, internal framing and communicative resources.

The findings illustrate how toddlers create shared meaning by participating in interaction, with variation. The communicative resources are used differently and the Swedish is outstanding. The first language is used only with the other children who share that language. Amount of interactional events are varied. Video-recording as a method and systematic analysis of video data to study peer communication as well as the relation between the communicative and physical environment in preschool and the toddlers’ communicative actions are discussed.