Language Socialization

Terminology Culture Enculturation/Socialization Language Socialization…

Culture Invisible, hard to define. Some definitions:  That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."(Tylor 1871:1)  Culture is a central concept in anthropology encompassing the range of human phenomena that are transmitted through social learning. The term "culture" in American anthropology has two main meanings:  The evolved ability to classify and represent experiences with symbols and to act imaginatively and creatively.  The complex networks of practices and accumulated knowledge and ideas that exist in specific human groups which is transmitted through social interaction.

Culture

Enculturation and Socialization Socialization – general process of acquiring culture, or learning how to live in a way acceptable to one’s own society, specifically in regard to knowledge of social position within culture and social interactions. Enculturation – process of socialization that helps person acquire social norms, values, behavior, language and tools of culture  Goal driven process  Observable activities – guided participation in culturally organized environment, based on child’s emerging activities and parental goals  Leads to expectations for performance and age-graded experience of culture differentiated by child’s emerging capacities

Language Socialization  The process by which children are socialized both through language and to use language within a community.  Language socialization is the process whereby a child or other novice develops communicative competence through interactions with older and/or more experienced persons. What is communicative competence?

Language Socialization  The process in which children are socialized both through language and to use language within a community.  Language socialization is the process whereby a child or other novice develops communicative competence through interactions with older and/or more experienced persons. What is communicative competence = ability to use language in socially appropriate ways

Language Socialization vs. Acquisition Language has many components:  Phonology  Vocabulary  Morphology  Syntax  Pragmatics

Language Socialization vs. Acquisition Language has many components:  Phonology  Vocabulary  Morphology  Syntax  Pragmatics

Language Socialization vs. Acquisition Language has many components:  Phonology  Vocabulary  Morphology  Syntax  Pragmatics

Language Socialization  Language socialization researchers seek to understand how individuals learn to use language in the culturally specific ways that enable them to participate in the social life of a particular community.  Another, equally important goal of language socialization research is to understand the broader sociocultural contexts within which this developmental process occurs, from local to global levels of analysis.

Ochs & Schiefflein Seminal study language socialization Language socialization  Western communicative routines between mothers and babies (“baby talk”) are not developmental universals.  Parental discourse patterns are culturally specific activities that foster language development, but also maintain dimensions of normative social life  Ochs & Schiefflein, Three developmental stories (1985)  Middle-class Western; U.S. and Britain  Kaluli; Papua New Guinea  Western Samoan

Ochs & Schiefflein  Western (Middle Class)/US and UK:  Hold infants face-to-face and gaze at them  Address infants, vocalize to them, ask questions  Respond to infants’ vocalizations and physical movements/ attribute intentionality  Treat very young children as communicative partners  Caregiver takes perspective of child/accommodates to child’s level and needs (baby talk, baby-proofing house, etc.).  Child is a focus of attention  Masking of incompetence of child – give child credit for something adult did, scaffolding (allow child to place last block on tower), play games and let child win  Recast child utterance as questions

Ochs & Schiefflein  Kaluli; Papua New Guinea: Live in remote portion of jungle, tropical rain forest Hunt and fish, farming No ranked social structure, highly egalitarian Monolingual, non-literate society. Live in villages, with many people per house in patriarchal lineages Population about 3,000

Ochs & Schiefflein  Kaluli; Papua New Guinea:  Talk is primary indicator of social competence and means of socializing. Learning how to talk and become independent is a major goal of socialization  Babies are “helpless”; “have no understanding” Parents do not treat infants like communicative partners. Babies face outwards so they can see and be seen – mother responds for the baby when others (siblings) greet the baby  Parents are physically responsive and attentive to infants  In first 18 months child-directed speech limited to “one-liners” that direct the child’s behaviors and call for no verbal response  However, a lot of talk around baby about what baby is doing  Belief that language begins when child uses words for “mother” and “breast”. At this point the child is “shown how to speak” through modeling/direct instruction of social uses of language  No baby talk or child would sound baby-ish

Ochs & Schiefflein  Samoa Became independent from New Zealand in 1960’s Samoan and English are official langauges Highly stratified society Population about 200,000

 Samoa  Caregiving is socially stratified with many caregivers (siblings, mother, etc) of different ranks  Infants are physically close to mother, are talked about, but rarely talked to and not treated as conversational partners  Language addressed to infant takes form of song or rhythmic vocalizations in a soft, high pitch  Once infant starts crawling they are seen as more assertive. more language directed to them “come”, but not to engage in conversation, and not linguistically simplified  Children taught (modeling) specific speech acts that feed into the social order (to be messenger/reporter to others)  Caregiving stratification feeds into conversational interchanges  Baby  mother  lower status caregiver  baby Ochs & Schiefflein

Summary Language socialization  Process of acquiring language is deeply affected by the process of becoming a competent member of society.  Process of becoming competent member of society realized through language, and exchanges of language in social situations.  Communicative interactions among caregivers and infants are culturally constructed

Salomo & Liszkowski  Socialization Question : Do sociocultural settings influence the emergence of pre-linguistic deictic gestures?  Methods: Natural observations of children’s activities, scan samplings, video recordings in three cultures  Yucatec Mayan (n=16)  Nijmegen, Dutch (n=16)  Shanghai Chinese ((n=16)  All children between 8-15 months

Salomo & Liszkowski

 All families engaged in “triadic social interaction” and all parents used the different gesture types.  However, differences were found (as predicted) in frequency of these activities and gestures  These differences in caregiver activities and gesture led to differences in children’s own use of gesture.  The emergence of prelinguistic gestures is already mediated by social-interactional experience.

Shirley Brice Heath Ways with words, 1985; What no bedtime story means, 1982:  Qualitative study of two working-class communities in rural Carolinas in 1970’s:  “Trackton” (Black) and “Roadville” (White).  She studied parents’ views about education, about what their children are capable of learning, their role in helping their children acquire knowledge, and children’s language development.

Heath  Trackton:  Children are always in the midst of constant human comunication.  “adults cannot make babies talk”  Adults do not respond to child utterances, seeing them only as “noise”  Children are not repositories of information, they will “come to know.”  “the measure of a man is his mouth”  Schooling is important and the path to success

Heath  Roadville  Children need to be taught to speak.  Babies are directly addressed using baby talk.  Young children are given books and educational toys to stimulate development.  Children encouraged to tell straightforward, factual stories.  Schooling is important and the path to success.

Heath  Language Socialization – the process in which children are socialized both through language and to use language within a community.  Trackton parents encouraging “performances”  children who can tell entertaining narratives.  Western middle-class mothers labeling frequently  children with a lot of nouns in vocabulary, tell more linear stories.

Some examples: Trackton (2 years)(3 years) (5 years)

Some examples: Trackton ( 9-12 years)

Some examples: Roadville (5 years): focus on non-fictive stories that tell the truth

The Challenge  In the case of Heath’s work, the school way of using language mapped onto the Roadville way of talking.  Even in a situation like this where people in both communities speak the same language, children can be socialized to communicate in different ways that may map on better or worse to the larger society.

Dimensions of comparison  Adapt situation to child vs. Adapt child to situation  Age at which child is seen as intentional communicator  Types of speech acts and activities used with children (object labels vs. directives; more vs less joint action) Where do these differences come from?

Where does the socialization come from?  Family/caregivers as primary means of socialization.  What other Agents of socialization?

Where does the socialization come from?  Family/caregivers as primary means of socialization.  What other Agents of socialization?  School  Peers  Mass Media  Work place  Church

Synthesis Language Socialization – what are the main themes, issues, ideas, points of interest/evidence that cut across the readings? Small groups - Mind Maps What are the implications of this body of work– for the individuals, for you and your practice?

Midterm  Chose 2 of 3 Questions and write 4 pages on each.  Goal is to synthesize the material we’ve covered so far. Question topics: 1. Universals/Challenging assumptions 2. Culture and Parenting 3. Methods

Office Hours  Scheduled office hours with Nell and Laura will be held this week to help answer questions about the midterm  Students are only permitted to sign up for one 20-minute slot  Sign up on Canvas  From the H-714 home page, navigate to the Calendar (top of the page)  Click the “Scheduler” tab and sign up for Laura or Nell’s office hours  or if you have any questions about  Nell’s office hours (located in Gutman 459):  Thursday, March 3 from 12-3 pm  Monday, March 7 from am  Tuesday, March 8 from 11:30 am -1:30 pm  Laura’s office hours (located in Larsen 502):  Friday, March 4 from 9:30-10:30 am  Monday, March 7 from 12-5 pm