36.2229, Reviews: Children’s Peer Cultures in Dialogue: Nicola Nasi (2024)

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Subject: 36.2229, Reviews: Children’s Peer Cultures in Dialogue: Nicola Nasi (2024)

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Date: 21-Jul-2025
From: Caren Yvonne Nelson [carenyvonne at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: Nicola Nasi (2024)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/35-2438

Title: Children’s Peer Cultures in Dialogue
Subtitle: Participation, hierarchy, and social identity in diverse
schools
Series Title: Dialogue Studies   34
Publication Year: 2024

Publisher: John Benjamins
           http://www.benjamins.com/
Book URL: https://benjamins.com/catalog/ds.34

Author(s): Nicola Nasi

Reviewer: Caren Yvonne Nelson

Please write or copy and paste your review of Children’s Peer Cultures
in Dialogue here.
SUMMARY
In Children’s Peer Cultures in Dialogue, Nicola Nasi explores
children’s peer interaction and its role in language acquisition in
the second language (L2) classroom. This exploration considers the
various semiotic devices (linguistic and otherwise) that children use,
which stimulate learning and development. The book is enhanced by
analysis of in-class conversations by students and by photographs
(taken during Nasi’s own ethnographic fieldwork), as well as similar
data from other countries drawn from secondary sources. The book is
set out in seven chapters; however, an annex presenting conclusions
can be considered an eighth. In addition, there is an extensive
reference list spanning pp. 165–197.
The Introduction (pp. 1–12) is used to provide context. Here Nasi
paints a picture of the changing Italian landscape, which, in modern
times, is characterized by a large proportion of immigrants of various
nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. This aggregation of ethnicities
is also evident in schools, especially public primary schools, which
form the focus of Nasi’s study. The increasing number of immigrants
has implications for teaching and learning, particularly because of
the need of learners who are themselves immigrants or the children of
immigrants to acquire the language of instruction, which is for them
an L2. Nasi contends that interaction with their peers is an important
and, implicitly, often undervalued element in children’s language
acquisition. He underscores peer interaction as a key tool that can be
harnessed by teachers.
The concepts of diversity and inclusion are central to Nasi’s book
and, in Chapter 1: “Dialogue, intersubjectivity, and diversity in
education” (pp. 13–31), Nasi addresses head on the issue of diversity
within the reality of the contemporary Italian public school system.
Diversity extends to characteristics such as language and country of
origin, in addition to the usual factors of gender, socioeconomic
background, and personal interests. Language is identified as a unit
of analysis, and the concept of the community of practice (CoP) is
introduced to underscore the role of groups in human interaction.
Similar to observations by Coleman (1961) and Eckert (1989), Nasi
notes—in the context of school as an institution of acculturation—that
the values embraced and upheld by the school, as well as its social
expectations, may not coincide with those of the home. This is
particularly relevant in what Nasi terms the “heterogeneous
classroom”, a term that he never defines.
In Chapter 2: “A social perspective on children’s development” (pp.
32–51), Nasi focuses on the centrality of language in socialization
and social interaction. Practice, i.e., doing, is also proposed as
having a critical role in language acquisition, which recalls the work
of Lave and Wenger (1971) and the origins of the CoP. The chapter
examines children’s agency within the school locus and their
exploitation of linguistic means to establish and demonstrate ideology
and identity, especially in the context of the L2 classroom. Also
examined is teachers’ communication of various biases (positive and
negative) through their use of language, and how difference—of varying
types—may be misinterpreted as incompetence.
Chapter 3: “Children’s peer languages and cultures” (pp. 52–72)
considers what is considered childhood, noting that it is usually
looked upon as an “apprenticeship for adulthood” (p. 53). However,
Nasi’s research shows that children are agentive and that they not
only assert themselves within their peer groups, but also manipulate
and negotiate interactions towards their own ends, either in alignment
or disalignment with adults. Children use language as a tool to (i)
align themselves within groups (thereby, disaligning from other
groups) and (ii) align themselves to the larger world—mainly
school—but also to their parents, their neighbourhood, etc. They
establish peer group boundaries by delineating social group
membership, or non-membership, on the basis of immigrant status,
ethnic group, code-switching, language, linguistic variety, etc. Peer
culture is reinforced through the role and use of language, where
“[i]n and through their everyday dialogues, children co-construct and
negotiate their respective identities, social roles, and local
hierarchies” (p. 61). Thus, the school milieu is characterized by the
juxtaposition between the various peer groups formed by the students,
and their alignment or otherwise to the school, and the school’s need
to serve its role of producing educated human beings with certain
desirable characteristics. In some instances, the latter goal may
include monolingualism.
Chapter 4: “(Mis)alignments to the school culture” (pp. 72–95)
addresses how children, exercising agency, use and reuse communicative
devices and expressions learnt from adults. The type of appropriation
may depend on the intention to associate with or dissociate from a
particular adult practice, ideology, or communicative device. Thus,
they may use them in ways other than the examples they observe—such as
in mockery. Introducing the term “subteaching” (p. 74), Nasi uses
student conversation data to describe how children may assume the role
of teacher in the classroom setting to establish a position of
superiority relative to others. However, their ‘teacher role’ may or
may not be in alignment with school culture. Thereby, Nasi shows that
children do not ‘blindly’ reproduce adult-language patterns and roles,
but appropriate them, as they see fit, to suit their particular
purposes.
In Chapter 5: “Classroom asymmetries, Authority and power in the peer
group” (pp. 96–113), children’s use of language and other semiotic
devices to assert, establish and negotiate power and authority within
their peer groups is discussed. Nasi notes the asymmetries that exist
in the school milieu, manifested in different relations of power
between individual students and other students, and between students
and teachers. He notes that students are aware of these asymmetries
and exploit ways of harnessing them to their advantage. Power and
authority are negotiated through two main means: epistemic power
(knowledge) and deontic authority (decision-making in different
situations). Complementing epistemic power and deontic authority, are
status and stance. For example, epistemic power usually resides in the
teacher in a classroom setting, however, in a given interaction, the
status ascribed to the teacher may be undermined by the stance taken
by a student who challenges the teacher’s authority or knowledge.
Chapter 6: “Peer conflict, How children argue with each other” (pp.
114–138) presents conflict as a useful and possibly necessary device
in children’s language acquisition and social development. In
advancing the utility of conflict, Nasi refers to it as “a double
opportunity space”, which, “[a]part from its role in the negotiation
of the social organization of the peer group, […] is central to
children’s learning and development” (p. 115). He also notes that it
has particular relevance in the L2 classroom, as it gives children
practice in negotiation, resolution, and a broadening of their
linguistic repertoire.
Chapter 7: “Creativity in children’s peer dialogues” (pp. 139–154) is
the book’s official final chapter, and Nasi discusses how children
apply creativity in their use of language. This is mainly done through
joke-telling and word play. He establishes that, in every situation,
the use of language involves creativity, as language users are always
repeating what they have heard before, employing innovation to tailor
utterances to differences in context. Thus, this combination of
repetition and innovation means language use is always creative. Like
adults, children exploit these devices in their peer interactions. To
demonstrate this, he provides examples of children using alliteration
and other clever devices to amuse and entertain their peers. As
always, he relates it to learning and development, showing how
children in general, but also non-native children specifically,
develop and learn to use language creatively through these practices.
A concluding section that follows Chapter 7 is titled “Some tentative
conclusions…”. Nasi uses this section to consolidate all he has
discussed throughout the book. It serves to summarize the key points
made over the seven chapters, without the interruption of linguistic
data, conversation analysis and photographs; therefore, it is a useful
addition. Finally, the section concludes with some parting words for
teachers, in what appears to be Nasi’s attempt to sensitize teachers
who operate in the heterogeneous classroom to (i) the need to consider
diversity in the classroom in different ways,  (ii) children’s agency
and artistry in the use of language, and (iii) an awareness of
unconscious bias in the classroom.
EVALUATION
As many developed-world schools have become characterized, in recent
decades, by student bodies with diverse ethnicities, Nasi’s book
provides a useful resource on this persistent trend. His term for this
modern phenomenon is the “heterogeneous classroom”, however, he does
not define it for the benefit of his readers. His use of conversation
data is effective in demonstrating how children manipulate language
and other semiotic devices in different situations to serve their
needs. However, in some instances, the level of detail appears
superfluous, for example, it might have been more efficacious to
present descriptions of the children’s conversations without the
actual glosses. In addition, transcription conventions are only
presented in an appendix at the end of the book, and nowhere is this
referenced at the start; therefore, the reader wades through several
short-hand notations without knowing what they mean. It is also not
clear who the target audience is: the level of the language used
suggests that it is pitched at academics; however, the short section
at the very end “… and a few implications for teachers’ practice”
(pp. 161–164) implies that it may be directed at public school
teachers at the primary level. For the latter, a simplified version
would be more appropriate.
These observations aside, the book conveys some lessons from the
children’s dialogues which help to demonstrate the usefulness of
Nasi’s study. It shows how children, through agency, use various
dialogic devices creatively—such as conflict and humour—to reinforce
group boundaries, and how the various devices they command contribute
to their linguistic and social development, as well as modeling
cultural assimilation for new immigrant students. This is a useful
resource for academics who may have an interest in the heterogeneous
classroom space.
REFERENCES
Coleman, J. S. (1961). The adolescent society, The social life of the
teenager and its  impact on education. The Free Press, a Corporation.
Eckert, P. (1989). Jocks and Burnouts, Social Categories and Identity
in the High       School. Teachers College, Columbia University. New
York.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning, legitimate
peripheral        participation.  Cambridge University Press.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Caren Nelson is an MPhil student at The University of the West Indies,
Mona (Jamaica), in the Department of Language, Linguistics and
Philosophy. Her research interests include language and identity,
adolescents, boys’ education, boys at the secondary school level,
communities of practice, ethnography, and linguistic anthropology.



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