An ethnolinguistic study of eight children (four girls, four boys) in an English nursery school is presented. The study examined the language and social behavior of the 3-year-old children during their initial adjustment to a school environment. All were third-generation British born to families of Pakistani origin, and spoke Mirpuri, vernacular Urdu-Punjabi, and English. They were observed on their first day in school and again 3 months later. Data were drawn from recordings of naturally-occurring language and contextual information on behavior. Case studies of one girl and one boy are presented here. Using social network analysis, the ways in which these linguistic minority students established contact with each other and other children are demonstrated. Two network types emerged: loose pupil networks and dense friendship networks. The former are characterized by the presence of teachers, playing an influential role in the composition of the cluster and the activities and behaviors of participants. As the term progressed, key individuals emerged from the pupil network and moved to form dense friendship networks. The groups' memberships influenced the bilingual children's social and language behavior in this setting, suggesting that children at this age can recognize markers of ethnicity. (MSE)