Acts of distancing the talk: Decontextualization in peer talk and children-teacher talk at kindergarten

Abstract

This study investigates how language is distanced from the immediate context in two interactional settings among kindergarten-aged children. Distancing acts involve shifts from concrete, immediate experiences to abstract discourse, using nominalizations and encompassing elements of decontextualized language such as metalinguistic talk. The study integrates ethnographic fieldwork and conversation analysis transcription methods. The dataset consists of recordings of two groups of 15 kindergarten children in secular education in Israel. The findings demonstrate that peer and teacher-child talk depict distancing and decontextualized language use. However, the function and mediation of distancing differ. In children-teacher talk, language is often examined as a goal in itself, with external framing such as the teacher's scaffolding and explicit questioning, promoting distanced language use. In peer talk, distancing is internally framed and naturally emerges, serving interpersonal and relational functions within the peer group. These findings suggest that both conversational contexts serve as complementary “opportunity spaces” (Blum-Kulka, 2005), and contribute to children's ability to engage in distancing acts, with each setting providing distinct and complementary opportunities. The study highlights that emergence of decontextualized language is not a binary skill but a gradual, context-sensitive process. It introduces the concept of “acts of distancing” as integral to the broader developmental trajectory of language decontextualization which becomes increasingly detached from immediate contexts through interaction shaped by the conversational partners.