Acquisition Of Sociolinguistic Competence Research Articles

Sociolinguistic competence and varietal repertoires in a second language: A study on addressee‐dependent varietal behavior using virtual reality

AbstractThe present study takes a variationist perspective to explore the varietal repertoires of adult learners of German as a second language (L2), that is, their variable use of standard German, Austro‐Bavarian dialect, and mixture varieties. Forty L2 learners completed a virtual reality task involving interactions with dialect‐speaking and standard‐German‐speaking interlocutors. Using Bayesian multilevel modeling, the goal was to explore differential outcomes in the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by determining whether participants adjusted their varietal behavior to match that of the interlocutor (i.e., varietal convergence). The results show that there were no interindividual addressee‐dependent convergence tendencies. A holistic person‐centered analysis of individual learners’ intraspeaker variation revealed that only select L2 learners adjusted their usage patterns but did not entirely invert their usage of dialect and standard language as a function of the variety of the interlocutor. Introspective qualitative data speak to potential drivers behind the differential development of L2 (multi)varietal repertoires.

Possessive pronouns in Welsh: Stylistic variation and the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence – Corrigendum

Possessive pronouns in Welsh: Stylistic variation and the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence – Corrigendum

Discourse completion tasks meet virtual reality: A pilot study on virtual reality as an elicitation instrument

In the interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics, research on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in the second language is growing quickly, yet comparatively little effort has been dedicated to developing innovative data collection instruments that combat long-known methodological shortcomings. This pilot study, based on data from native German speakers from Austria, evaluates the use of virtual reality (VR) as a means to (a) compensate for weaknesses of the sociolinguistic/semi-directed interview in sociolinguistic research and (b) elicit mechanisms of linguistic convergence towards a respective interlocutor's language variety. Qualitative content analysis showed high rates of immersiveness in interaction with the virtual interlocutors. The production data showed clear between-participant tendencies to converge to the respective virtual interlocutor's Austrian dialect or standard German variety. These findings are discussed against the backdrop of L2 sociolinguistic acquisition research and highlight the necessity for methodological advances in data collection practices.

Variation and third age: A sociolinguistic perspective

AbstractThe correlation between external factors such as age, gender, ethnic group membership and language variation is one of the stalwarts of sociolinguistic theory. The repertoire of individual members of speaker groups, vis-à-vis community-wide variation, represents a somewhat slippery ground for developing and testing models of variation and change and has been researched with reference to accommodation (Bell 1984), style shifting (Rickford, John R. & MacKenzie Price. 2013. Girlz II women: Age-grading, language change and stylistic variation.Journal of Sociolinguistics17. 143–179) and language change generally (Labov, William. 2001.Principles of linguistic change, vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell). This paper presents and assesses some first quantitative evidence that non-mobile older speakers from Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, who grew up in an utterly isolated speech community, vary and shift according to external interview parameters (interviewer, topic, place of interview). However, while they respond to the formality of the context, they display variation (both regarding speakers and variables) that is not in line with the constraints attested elsewhere. These findings are assessed with focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in third-age speakers (particularly style-shifting, Labov, William. 1964. Stages in the acquisition of Standard English. In Roger Shuy, Alva Davis & Robert Hogan (eds.),Social Dialects and Language Learning, 77–104. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English) and across the life-span generally.

通过身份重建和参与习得社会语言能力

通过身份重建和参与习得社会语言能力

From marginality to integration: Appropriation of space through sociolinguistic competence in Laila Wadia’s Amiche per la pelle

In her novel Amiche per la pelle, Indian-Italian writer Laila Wadia tells the stories of four immigrant women as they learn Italian in Trieste. Wadia uses space to define the characters’ marginality, and to describe their journey as they seek integration into society. The depiction of space is also employed by Wadia to hint at the potential for the literature of migration in Italian to become an integral part of Italian literature. The article analyzes the learning experience of the four women within the sociolinguistic framework of the community of practice. The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence allows the apprentice in the community of practice to move from a peripheral, marginal position to a more central one. According to the author, Wadia points to a possible and desirable future when migrants find a central space and gain full membership in the community of practice of their adopted country through mutual engagement and shared goals, just as literature of migration in Italian will one day find legitimate inclusion in the Italian literary patrimony.

The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Study Abroad Context by Vera Regan, Martin Howard and Isabelle Lemée

The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Study Abroad Context by Vera Regan, Martin Howard and Isabelle Lemée

Sociolinguistics

05–96Akinyemi, Akintunde (U of Florida, USA; akinyemi@aall.ufl.edu). Integrating culture and second language teaching through Yorùbá personal names. The Modern Language Journal (Madison, Wl, USA) 89.1 (2005), 115–126.05–97Dewaele, Jean-Marc (Birkbeck College, U of London, UK; j.dewaele@bbk.ac.uk). The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in French as a foreign language: an overview. French Language Studies (Cambridge, UK) 14.3 (2004), 301–319.05–98Morita N. (U of British Columbia, Canada). Negotiating Participation and Identity in Second Language Academic Communities. TESOL Quarterly (Alexandria, VA, USA) 38.4 (2004), 573–603.

The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in French as a foreign language: an overview

The present contribution presents an overview of studies in French as a second (L2) and/or foreign language that consider the effects of extralinguistic variables (mostly instructional, experiential and situational factors) on the development of sociolinguistic competence. It focuses specifically on variation between informal and formal variants in phonology, morphology, morpho-syntax and the lexicon.

Introduction: The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence

Introduction: The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence

Gender differences in young children's speech: the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence

Many sociolinguistic studies have found that female speakers prefer standard speech forms while male speakers prefer vernacular forms. This article addresses two questions: (1) when does this split between male and female language occur in the language of young children; and (2) how do little boys and girls come to prefer linguistic features which are predominant in the language of adults? Two hypotheses accounting for the mechanisms of transmission are presented – the frequency hypothesis and the role‐model hypothesis – and data from a study of Danish children's acquisition of past‐tense morphology is presented. The study found gender differences in the past‐tense morphology of the 4‐, 6‐ and 8‐year‐old participants, and it is argued that the role‐model hypothesis would most adequately explain these differences. Furthermore, it is argued that early institutionalisation of children in Denmark may lead to increased peer group influence and help explain why gender differences occur at an earlier age compared to studies from the UK and the USA.

Sociolinguistics and Language Learning in a Study Abroad Context

This article will focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by second language learners during a period of study abroad. Various aspects of sociolinguistic competence will be discussed and some of the principal factors which affect it will be described.

Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Japanese Immersion School

Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Japanese Immersion School

Learning how to ask: Native metacommunicative competence and the incompetence of fieldworkers

ABSTRACTEvery speech community boasts an array of devices for characterizing communicative events. These native metacommunicative repertoires are culturally patterned in terms of both use and acquisition. Interviews meet with varying degrees of success by virtue of their relative (in-)compatibility with the norms underlying such events. An analysis of the way in which Spanish speakers in rural New Mexico gain metacommunicative competence suggests that native metacommunicative routines provide a rich source of sociolinguistic and social/cultural data and that awareness of these repertoires can assist fieldworkers in using interviews more appropriately and effectively. (Interview techniques, metacommunication, acquisition of sociolinguistic competence, ethnopoetics, New Mexican Spanish)