Child agency in early language development and learning: introduction to special issue

This introductory paper seeks to demonstrate how the articles in this volume enhance our understanding of child agency in both language development at home and language learning in educational environments. The four contributions in this Special Issue address various aspects of child agency in early childhood. The volume aims to strengthen this emerging field by bringing together areas such as agency, family language policy, educational language policy in preschool settings, and methodologies for researching with and about children in early language learning contexts. The introduction focuses on five themes relevant to our discussion of what is novel in this special issue: (1) child agency, (2) issues in research in early language learning, (3) the symbiotic relationship between child agency and family language policy, (4) the role of educational context in child agency development, and (5) the ecological approach toward child agency.