Reading Questions for Garcia Sanchez, Serious Games Vocabulary: metacommentary; heteroglossia
1. What are the functions that each language is used for by the children in their interactions with parents and other adults, or by adults to the children?
2. What does Garcia Sanchez say are the functions of the two languages within the context of the children’s games of pretend?
3. What are some aspects of the girl’s lives and status in Spanish society that we need to know about in order to understand their games?
4. The title of the article is “Serious Games;” what can the study of children’s pretend play (which we might tend think about as fundamentally unserious) tell us about their wider social worlds?