Mikhail Bakhtin: Dialogic Language and the Early Years

This chapter talks about Mikhail Bakhtin's Dialogic Language. Dialogic concepts have now been applied to the study of early years experience by several early years researchers internationally. In one way or other studies orient us away from an exclusive emphasis on received forms of language in order to contemplate the rich nature of children's voices in play. Bakhtin explains, the use of language is thus much more than simply learning to speak the words of others, but a way of speaking of the self and others in the world as shifting subjectivities in a complex heteroglot. Understanding children's language as part of a complex chain of utterances emphasizes the unique meanings that each child may bring to language and the shifting meanings that might arise from an appreciation of these. Utilizing key concepts of utterance and heteroglossia, it becomes possible to adopt a deeper appreciation of the subtleties of language with young children.