Process Of Language Socialization Research Articles

Unpacking family language policy through autoethnography: Insights from a transnational Arabic-speaking family in the United States

Aims and objectives: Adopting an autoethnography research framework, this study draws upon insider insights into family life to investigate the language policy of Arabic-speaking Saudi families in the United States. This approach contributes to family language policy (FLP) scholarship. Leveraging the well-established tradition of autoethnography in sociolinguistic studies, the study examines language socialization within a transnational family and the resulting changes in their FLP. Methodology: This study adopted Spolsky’s framework of language policy, which consists of ideology, management, and planning. Due to the amount and variation of data, analytical induction was used because it identifies recurring patterns and develops initial insights by examining similarities between phenomena. This method also offers analytical lenses for studying personal experiences and social interactions. Data collection and analysis: The data presented in this research were obtained from a larger corpus set obtained during a primary longitudinal study that examined language socialization processes within an Arabic Muslim family temporarily residing in a Western context for a period of 3 years. However, for the purpose of this autoethnographic study, the data analysis was limited to a 2-year period because this analytical method examines broad categories of understanding and then creates sub-categories. Fieldnotes, journals, and recordings were logged and coded to find important patterns. Findings: This study shows autoethnography as a useful approach to greater access to an Arabic-speaking Muslim family living in the United States. It also revealed aspects related to internal conflict and the different views parents can have about raising a bilingual child. The role of contextual factors in impacting FLP is also explained. By considering the broader social and cultural influences on language policy, the study showcased the complex interplay between macro-level factors and micro-level family dynamics. Originality: This study is the one of the rare studies that highlights the autoethnographic approach to FLP with relation to Arabophone Muslim families living in the United States. Also, the study demonstrates the value of the autoethnographic approach to FLP, as it helps to explore insider perspectives to understand the dynamic nature of FLP, the contextual factors influencing it, and how families construct meaning through their language use. Significance: This study lays the groundwork for future sociolinguists interested in FLP research to delve deeper into family language dynamics and explore how children navigate their parents’ language policies through the use of autoethnography approaches.

The impact of language socialization in the context of family, education, and sojourn on emotional, psychological, and identity responses to language learning

The paper examines the impact of language socialization in the context of family, education, and sojourn on multilingual learners’ emotional, psychological, and identity responses to language learning and use. Since language and culture are interwoven in second language acquisition (SLA) (Kramsch, 1998), learners respond to language learning and use on the levels of language and culture, shaping learners’ linguistic, cultural, and social identities on the individual and on the collective levels alike. This classroom research is a qualitative case study involving four cohorts of learners in a multicultural classroom: 1) students having learned English only in the formal context of education, 2) learners having grown up in a multicultural and multilingual environment speaking several languages including English, 3) a learner raised bilingually by a non-native second language (L2)-speaking parent, and 4) a multilingual learner learning languages in formal contexts but also experiencing sojourn. Data were collected via a linguistic autobiography (an unstructured essay) written by the fourteen participants. The findings point out that negative experiences associated with unfavorable teaching methods, discriminative educational practices, or bullying lead to negative emotional, psychological, and identity responses to learning. Learners experience ‘language socialization shock’ when a sudden change occurs in their language socialization processes – irrespective of whether the change is positive or negative. In an effort to attain positive experiences and self-fulfillment via language learning and use, learners rid themselves of the old socialization context haunted by negative experiences by moving on to a new socialization context or by learning a different foreign language through which they can ‘start over’. The findings also point out some of the long-term psychological and social effects of raising bilingual children by non-native L2-speaking parents and the impact of multilingual and multicultural socialization contexts on learners’ linguistic and life choices that transform their lives. / Keywords: language ecology, language socialization, identity, emotions, bilingualism, multilingualism, multicultural classrooms, psychological well-being, language learning, sojourn, classroom research

Micro Language Policy and Planning in Multilingual Communities: A Qualitative Case Study of a Multilingual Band

The study of language policy and planning includes three dimensions: macro, meso and micro. To explore the language policy planning and negotiation process of multilingual community can elicit “language issues” from a micro perspective and provide reference for the governance of language diversely. This study conducts a one-year qualitative follow-up survey and in-depth interview on the Language Life of a multilingual background band in China. Through describing and presenting the language practice and dynamic ideological changing process of the multilingual community, the study reflects the language planning and policy negotiation process in its Language Life in a micro scope. The findings of this study are: Language policy arbiter has a greater impact in the process of the micro language policy planning and negotiation in multilingual communities; in the process of their negotiation, members of the community make different linguistic choices in an evolutionary way of social learning to construct a situational corpus, complete the process of language socialization and adapt to the multilingual life of the community. The corpus they constructed is not a simple monolingualism or multilingualism, but a translanguaging practice. The translanguaging practice shows a multimodal and multilingual nature in a way of “musical terms + body language + fragmented multilingualism + monolingualism”. With different of discourse environments, the strategies of multimodal combination are varied. The study proposes that language policy and planning for multilingual communities should be based on the consideration of the actual discourse environments, and that encouraging and assisting members in multilingual communities to construct multimodal and multilingual discourse and situational corpus flexibly can effectively help members in multilingual communities adapt to their multilingual life. This study provides a new and empirical case study for the micro language policy and planning of multilingual societies, which can have some enlightenment.

Koulun monet kielet: lähtökohtia, kehityskulkuja ja tulevaisuuden näkymiä

This article introduces the AFinLA-e thematic issue on plurilingualism in the school. Lately, multilingualism has been a buzzword in both sociolinguistic research and applied linguistics. Through the reform of national core curriculum for basic education, multilingualism, alongside language awareness, has also become an inextricable part of public educational discussions and the normative framework of basic education. There remain, however, questions about how all these changes translate into linguistically responsive classroom pedagogy and practices that support achieving learning goals, the process of language socialization, and pupils’ plurilingual identities. Our aim is to give a brief general introduction into the flourishing field of multilingualism research, its developments, approaches and trajectories, and describe the contributions that the articles in this issue make into the growing body of work in the Finnish context. We also identify three future trajectories for research on plurilingualism in the school.

The role of pragmatic socialization in building learners’ pragmatic competence from English teachers’ perspectives

This article provides empirical evidence regarding Indonesian EFL teachers’ perceptions about pragmatic competence and the role of pragmatic socialization to develop learners’ pragmatic competence. Considerable viewpoints were obtained by analyzing the data collected from 104 Indonesian EFL teachers using questionnaires and focus group interviews. While still maintaining the conventional way of teaching English, these teachers admitted the importance of socializing English pragmatics to their students. They indicated that EFL learners needed to learn the socio-cultural norms of the target language in order to communicate appropriately. Teachers viewed politeness essential for learners to understand that failure to meet the required action might break interpersonal relationships. Therefore, they agreed that language classrooms should utilize interactive strategic tasks that involved learner-learner and teacher-learner interactions to foster the presence of pragmatic socialization in the classrooms. Even though most teachers were unsure about how they would put their ideas in practice, it was evident that teachers perceived both explicit and implicit language socialization processes promising and worth implementing. Future research may investigate how teachers socialize English pragmatics to EFL learners in real classroom settings.

Language Socialization and CLIL Teachers’ Agency in Castilla-La Mancha Bilingual Programs: Appropriations and Transformations

Language socialization research in bilingual and multilingual settings, particularly across EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL (English as a Second Language) contexts, has addressed the processes by which novices are «apprenticed» or mentored into the linguistic and nonlinguistic ideologies, values, practices, and stances (affective, epistemic, and other) of sociocultural groups to ultimately become «competent members» of these learning communities. However, one of the unexplored bilingual education contexts from a language socialization perspective refers to «Content and Language Integrated Learning» or CLIL, defined as «inclusive of a wide range of educational practices provided that these practices are conducted through the medium of an additional language and both language and the subject have a joint role». Taking these premises as a point of departure, this article discusses the language socialization processes CLIL teachers undergo to become competent members of the bilingual school communities (BSC) that have proliferated extensively in Castilla-La Mancha (CLM), Spain, in the last decade. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in four different bilingual state-funded and state-funded private schools in this region, the article analyzes the case of San Marcos’ teachers’ narratives of becoming and doing CLIL as «meta-agentive» discursive sites that display the ideologies and practices of professional personhood at stake in CLIL programs. The article further advances the latest ethnographic CLIL agenda interested in revealing the social processes involved in the organization of exclusionary practices in the era of the «bilingual» craze and pressure across different Spanish autonomous communities

Heritage language socialization in Chinese American immigrant families: prospective links to children’s heritage language proficiency

ABSTRACT Though a number of language socialization processes are theorized to promote children’s heritage language proficiency (HLP), little research has considered these processes in a single study and examined their prospective relations to multiple domains of HLP in school-age children. In a two-wave longitudinal study of Chinese American children of immigrant parents (N = 258, age = 7–11 years), language socialization processes (e.g. adult HL use at home, parental attitudes towards HL, child participation in HL classes or extracurricular activities) were assessed using parent reports and behavioral observation at Time 1 (1st to 2nd grade). Children’s HLP (Cantonese or Mandarin) was assessed using vocabulary and literacy tests at Time 2. Results of structural equation modeling showed that adults’ Chinese language use with children at home predicted children’s higher Chinese receptive and expressive vocabulary two years later, and children’s participation in Chinese language extra-curricular activities predicted their higher Chinese receptive and expressive vocabulary and higher Chinese word reading. By contrast, parental valuing of Chinese language and children’s exposure to Chinese media did not predict children’s Chinese proficiency. These findings provided support for the benefits of HL use at home and HL classes in promoting HL development in children in immigrant families.

Language Socialization of Written Academic Discourse

This paper will look at the studies conducted to see how written academic discourse is socialized. Written academic discourse socialization is a dynamic process, mostly socially situated and comtemporarily involves multimodal, multilingual, and intertextual context. This paper will see what influences the process of language socialization within this context, focusing on how the novice learners learn to participate themselves into the academic written discourse. In different setting of culture, there are various values that learners bring into educational context. The same thing also happens in the socialization of written discourse. Learners bring their previous experiences, shaped identity, and other values that might be different, or even in contrast with what is being socialized. In this way, it is interesting to see how learners cope with such things and take the step to participate in the academic world. Equally important, it is necessary to examine the impact of language socialization forms, either in the form of feed back, remodelling, or criticism on the learners resistance or conformity

Language Learning and Socialization Opportunities in Game Worlds: Trends in First and Second Language Research

AbstractSince the growth of online gaming in the mid‐2000s, an increasing number of studies have theorised that virtual game worlds provide an optimal environment for language learning – both first language literacy development and second language acquisition. Although online games are often thought of as little more than distractions, a number of studies have demonstrated that there exist myriad opportunities for communication and learning, including language learning, in many games. One of the most popular games, the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, for example, relies for much of its success on the opportunities it presents for engaging collaboration in navigating the world and taking part in team combat, often mediated via language. While a number of studies have already examined first language socialization processes in games, particularly following the release of World of Warcraft a decade ago, research on opportunities for second language learning opportunities in online games is still emerging, and this area of research will be the focus of this review. Via a meta‐analysis of both first and second language studies in areas within and outside of linguistics and language education, this review will explore why virtual game worlds are said to constitute such ideal environments for language learning.

Linguistic reception of Latin American students in Catalonia and their responses to educational language policies

This study explores the connections between language policy implementation in three Barcelona-area secondary schools and the language attitudes and behaviors of Spanish-speaking Latin American newcomers. Data were collected through interviews and ethnographic participant observation document indexes of different forms of language socialization processes and highlight the role of teachers and of ‘Reception Classes’ (RCs) in which students receive Catalan language support. Different RC models and placements of the RC in the school have effects on those processes and the students' attitudes toward Catalan and schooling. Deficient models result from lack of institutional support and unfavorable conditions of the RC in the school. Positive models result from individual teacher initiative and commitment to move beyond basic language teaching and include broader social and academic objectives for newcomers. We conclude that language policy meeting goals requires consistent commitment at all levels from policy-makers to individual teachers.

Prolepsis, syncretism, and synergy in early language and literacy practices: a case study of family language policy in Singapore

This article reports a case study of two Chinese–English bilingual families in Singapore and illustrates the importance of incorporating two hitherto disconnected fields of research—family language policy and family literacy practices—to an understanding of early language and literacy acquisition in the familial milieu. Specifically, this work illuminates how such language socialization processes as prolepsis, syncretism, and synergy mediate the influences of the larger sociocultural context on the focal children’s bilingual and biliteracy learning at home. A comparison of the two families reveals similarities and differences in the way they drew on language practices from multiple resources to involve their children in an array of bilingual/biliteracy activities and to align these activities to the current and projected future needs of the children. The study shows how the family members’ cultural backgrounds, past experiences of learning and parenting, educational beliefs, and aspirations for the children shaped language ideology, language practices, and language management at home.

Literate Identities among Korean Students Learning English in the USA

This article illustrates the complicated process of language socialization and literacy development with identity reformulations that Korean students...

Serious games

This paper examines the situated ways in which Moroccan immigrant children in Spain create imagined, alternative life worlds and explore possible forms of identification through an investigation of these children’s hybrid linguistic practices in the midst of play. Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1981, 1986) notions of heteroglossia and hybridity, the analysis focuses on the meanings of codeswitching practices that a group of Moroccan immigrant girls deploy in pretend-play sequences involving dolls to construct female identities; identities that they treat as desirable in the context of Spanish idealizations of femininity, but that are considered transgressional by adults in Moroccan diaspora communities in Spain. Neighborhood peer group play affords Moroccan immigrant girls’ transformations and engagement in subversive tactics, in that these activities take place outside the scrutiny of parents and other adults. The rich verbal and sociocultural environment of Moroccan immigrant children’s peer groups provide us with an excellent window to investigate peer language socialization processes in relation to how immigrant children negotiate, transform, and subvert in the midst of play the different, and often incongruous, socio-cultural and linguistic expectations and constraints that they encounter on a daily basis. Use of Moroccan Arabic and Spanish in this pretend play, in particular, results in a heteroglossic polyphony of voices imbued with moral tensions (Bahktin 1981, 1986). This analysis highlights the importance of these hybrid linguistic practices in immigrant girls’ explorations of alternative processes of gendered identification in multilingual, culturally-syncretic environments. Through surreptitious pretend-play, Moroccan immigrant girls explore imagined transgressional possible identities and moral worlds. In this sense, this research also underscores the implications of children’s language use and language choice in pretend-play for larger processes of cultural continuity and transformation in transnational, diasporic communities undergoing rapid change.

Language socialization and interculturality: address terms in intergenerational talk in Chinese diasporic families

This paper aims to contribute to the current debate on ‘interculturality’ (IC) by investigating the process of language socialization whereby different generations of diasporic families negotiate, construct, and renew their sociocultural values and identities through interaction. Focusing on the use of address terms and ‘talk about social, cultural, and linguistic practice,’ the paper argues that IC is not only a dynamic process through which participants make aspects of their multiple and shifting identities relevant, but also a process of developing new social and cultural identities. In effect, it serves as a direct means of language socialization for the younger generation who are developing their sociocultural roles and learning about the social and cultural appropriateness of behavior in a diasporic context, where there are potentially substantial differences in social and cultural values between the wider local community and the diasporic community. Language socialization is regarded in this study as not simply about passing social and cultural values from one generation to another, but about bringing about changes in social and cultural values. Through language socialization, the younger generations of diasporic communities not only internalize the social, cultural and linguistic norms of their community, but also play an active role in constructing and creating their own social and cultural identities as well as bringing about changes to the existing community and family norms.

‘Luckily it was only for 10 minutes’: Ideology, discursive positions, and language socialization in family interaction1

This paper presents a qualitative analysis of family interaction concerning two narratives told by Julie (nine years old) and Emma (11) during dinner-table conversations in their respective homes. Based on their different notions of the institutional process of schooling, these two families interactionally and narratively shape thematically similar events in different ways. A focus on obedience, authority and issues of right and wrong provides Julie with the discursive position of a subordinate novice, whereas issues of autonomy, choice and individual responsibility enable Emma to take up the position of self-assured expert. Both children are encouraged to reflect upon their own conduct and evaluate the implications of the choices guiding their actions. The paper demonstrates how moral order is interactionally constructed, and how language socialization processes are ideologically charged. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of such processes for children's immediate and future orientation to the institutional practices of school and society.

Intercultural Transformation and Second Language Socialization

In order to make a fuller interpretation of second language socialization processes in intercultural communication contexts, this study looks into the basic assumptions of language socialization and the tenets of intercultural transformation studies before arguing for the feasibility of weaving the two research paradigms to create a more inclusive theoretical framework of intercultural language socialization. An elaboration of such a framework holds promise to enable a more panoramic interrogation of the joint development of L2 learners’ language competence and sociocultural knowledge in complex intercultural communicative contexts. This effort will not only expand and enrich the two research paradigms themselves, but also compensate for the dearth of research in this interdisciplinary field.

Intimacy, Imitation and Language Learning: Spanish Diminutives in Mother-Child Conversation

This paper explores how Spanish-speaking Peruvian mothers and their children use diminutives in everyday conversations, seeking to characterize the discourse forms and functions of diminutive imitation and to explore potential differences across speaker groups. More generally, we investigate how and why the use of diminutives may play an important role in facilitating conversational interaction and language learning. Findings illustrate the importance of examining languagelearning processes among non-English-speaking populations, as well as the role of cross-linguistic, cross-cultural analysis in understanding interactional and language socialization processes.

Language Socialization: Reproduction and Continuity, Transformation and Change

▪ Abstract While continuing to uphold the major aims set out in the first generation of language socialization studies, recent research examines the particularities of language socialization processes as they unfold in institutional contexts and in a wide variety of linguistically and culturally heterogeneous settings characterized by bilingualism, multilingualism, code-switching, language shift, syncretism, and other phenomena associated with contact between languages and cultures. Meanwhile new areas of analytic focus such as morality, narrative, and ideologies of language have proven highly productive. In the two decades since its earliest formulation, the language socialization paradigm has proven coherent and flexible enough not merely to endure, but to adapt, to rise to these new theoretical and methodological challenges, and to grow. The sources and directions of that growth are the focus of this review.

The Pragmatics of Making Requests in the L2 Workplace: A Case Study of Language Socialization

The workplace is one of many sociocultural contexts where novices within a culture, like immigrant women, become socialized into new discourse systems and cultures. As second language (L2) speakers, the process of language socialization in the workplace involves double socialization: as a novice in a new work environment and as novice operating within a new language and culture. Focusing on L2 requesting behaviour, this ethnographic case study deals with the important issue of the pragmatics of higher-stakes social communications. The contextualized examples provided here illustrate how, through exposure and participation in social interactions and with the assistance of experts or more competent peers, an immigrant woman came to internalize target language and cultural norms and develop communicative competence in ESL in the workplace. More specifically, she learned to make requests more directly than she had been accustomed by adopting certain sociolinguistic strategies and expressions. The research on which this paper is based represents a new direction in TESOL workplace-oriented research, combining interlanguage pragmatics, ethnography, and language socialization.

Language and Social Skills From a Diversity Perspective

The acculturation of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is achieved primarily through the process of language socialization. This article reviews some of the issues involved in the relationship between language and social skills and the types of variation that must be addressed. Implications are discussed for the practicing speech-language pathologist.