Learning beyond language: an ethnographic study of language socialization in English conversation groups

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ABSTRACT This study examined how informal Conversations in English (CIE) groups helped migrants gain cultural knowledge about communicating in the United States and how the CIE groups facilitated the process of language socialization. The Ethnography of Communication (EC) and Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA) were used to understand the connection between discourses of personhood and relationships. Findings show that the CIE groups established conversation as a skill and conversation as a means for relating, thus they functioned as sites of language socialization where adult language learners are taught that communicating in the United States involves both language skills and relational qualities.