Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1.3, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: There are many ways of talking to children and preverbal infants and also a great variety of opinions about how important the child’s environment is or if it plays a role at all. The question is not only how and why children understand grammatical forms and language (Ochs & Schieffelin 1995: 73), but also which role other aspects, such as Parentese and Baby Talk, play. Are they necessary or totally unimportant? Should parents talk to their children at all or is it senseless because they do not understand what the parents say to them? Some people are of the opinion that Parentese only plays “a minimal role” (Garnica 1977: 63) whereas other people think that the verbal environment is important. In how far is the acquisition of language “the result of a process of interaction between mother and child” (Snow 1977: 31)? By explaining some aspects of talk to children, such as Parentese, Baby Talk, expansion, correction, imitation and by giving examples of children being socialized through language, the question about which role these aspects really play in first language acquisition should be answered.

The language experience of children developing in linguistically diverse environments is subject to considerable variation both in terms of quantity and quality of language exposure. It is an open question how to investigate language exposure patterns and more important which factors are relevant for successful language learning. For example, children acquiring a minority language, including a signed language, are exposed to less variety of input than children acquiring a more global language. This is because they are living in a smaller linguistic community and with fewer occasions to use the language in everyday life. Despite this reduced input, most native signers are successful language learners. In contrast native language competence is not always achieved in signing deaf children with hearing parents or those with cochlear implants learning a spoken language. A similar outcome but with very different reasons has also been reported for hearing children with language impairment. In these populations acquisition of morphosyntactic aspects is developing atypically ending with an uncomplete linguistic repertoire. The circumstances of exposure during language development tend to differ in significant ways with respect to a large number of factors, such as, (i) length, quality and quantity of input, (ii) social status and attitudes toward the language, (iii) cognitive abilities required for language learning, and (iv) age of first exposure. Having early exposure to a range of different speakers is important in the acquisition of any language and may affect language proficiency. However, negative societal attitudes or a cognitive based disadvantage may create an unfavourable learning environment that prevents language learning from surfacing typically. This situation inevitably generates a different type of exposure for the child and consequently different language competence. In this Research Topic we intend to encourage the debate on social, linguistic and cognitive factors at play for designing an effective environment for language acquisition aiming at integrating linguistic variables coming from theoretical studies on language with environmental variables, such as, measures of language input or cognitive abilities on functions ancillary to language development.

The papers in this volume offer a sampling of contemporary efforts to update the portrayal of study abroad in the applied linguistics literature through attention to its social and cultural aspects. The volume illustrates diversification of theory and method, refinement of approaches to social interactive language use, and expansion in the range of populations and languages under scrutiny. Part I offers a topical orientation, outlining the rationale for the project. Part II presents six qualitative case studies adopting sociocultural, activity theoretical, postructuralist, or discourse analytic methodologies. The four chapters in Part III illustrate a variety of approaches and foci in research on the pragmatic capabilities of study abroad participants in relation to second language identities. The volume will be of interest to a broad audience of applied linguistics researchers, language educators, and professionals engaged in the design, oversight, and assessment of study abroad programs.

This volume provides a broad coverage of the intersection of sociolinguistic variation and language acquisition. Favoured by the current scientific context where interdisciplinarity is particularly encouraged, the chapters bring to light the complementarity between the social and cognitive approaches to language acquisition. The book integrates sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic issues by bringing together scholars who have been developing conceptions of language acquisition across the lifespan that take into account language-internal and cross-linguistic variation in contexts of both first and second language acquisition as well as of first and second dialect acquisition. The volume brings together theoretical and empirical research and provides an excellent basis for scholars and students wanting to delve into the social and cognitive dimensions of both the production and perception of sociolinguistic variation. The book enables the reader to understand, on the one hand, how variation is acquired in childhood or at a later stage and, on the other, how perception and production feed into one another, thus building up our understanding of the social meanings underpinning language variation.

This book examines how autonomy in language learning is fostered and constrained in social settings through interaction with others and various contextual features. With theoretical grounding, the authors discuss the implications for practice in classrooms, distance education, self-access centres, as well as virtual and social learning spaces.

Language, Children and Society: The Effect of Social Factors on Children Learning to Communicate investigates the processes involved in the development of communicative skills in young children, in particular as these unfold during the child's participation in social interactions in a variety of everyday, educational situations. For a fuller understanding of these processes, through which the child learns the vast array of communicative skills necessary to function effectively in social contexts, the broad range of situations in which the communicative exchanges are embedded—school, home, community, etc.—are examined. Comprised of 17 chapters, this volume begins by painting a vivid picture of human discrimination and prejudice that touches every child involved in the education process in the United States, a result that can be linked to language ignorance. The discussion then turns to some of the contributions of linguistics to education and some of the problems involved in reaching greater cooperation between linguists and educators. The relevance of developments in sociolinguistics to the study of language learning and early education is emphasized. Subsequent chapters focus on the communicative competence of kindergarten children; children's situational variation and situational competence; sex differences in the language of children and parents; and dialogue, monologue, and egocentric speech by children in nursery schools. This book will be of interest to teachers and students, as well as to practitioners in the fields of educational psychology, psychobiology, psychiatry, linguistics, and childhood education.

Most of our interactions with others occur within the framework of recurring social situations, and the language choices we make are intimately tied to situational features. Although the interdependence between language and social situations has been well recognized at least since G. H. Mead developed his symbolic interactionist theory, psychologists have been reluctant to devote much interest to this domain until recently. Yet it is arguable that a detailed understanding of the subtle links between situational features and language use must lie at the heart of any genuinely social psychology. This volume contains original contributions from psychologists, linguists and philosophers from the United States, Canada, Europe, Israel, and Australia who share an interest in the social-psychological aspects of language. Their work represents one of the first concentrated attempts to chart the possibilities of this exciting field. It is perhaps in order to say a few words about the origins of this book. The need for a volume integrating research on language and social situations first emerged during the 2nd International Conference of Language and Social Psychology at Bristol University in 1983, at which I was convening a symposium with a similar title at the request of the organizers, Peter Robinson and Howard Giles. When they first approached me with this idea in 1982, I gladly accepted, since my own research on cognitive representations of social episodes seemed eminently relevant to a symposium on language and social situations.

After decades of research most scholars generally agree that language acquisition is a complex and multifaceted process that involves the interaction of innate biologically-based mechanisms devoted to language, other non-linguistic cognitive and social mechanisms, linguistic input, and information about the social and physical world. Theoretical work in the field of language acquisition now needs to focus in greater depth and detail on some specific aspects of this general model, which is the main goal of this book. The chapters in this volume provide some new insights into one of the most remarkable accomplishments achieved by almost all children. The particular questions that are raised by contributors include: * What kinds of constraints operate on the process of language development? * Which aspects of the acquisition process depend on language-specific mechanisms? * Are there critical brain structures necessary for the acquisition of language? * What role do cognitive and social mechanisms play in language development? * How critical is perceptual input about the physical and social world? * What is the specific role played by linguistic input in the child's construction of a linguistic system? Questions are addressed from the perspective of children who come to the task of acquiring language with many hurdles to overcome, including deafness and blindness, mental retardation, autism, and prenatal or perinatal brain damage involving the left hemisphere. Each section contributes some insight on how an innate language-specific biological substrate interacts with cognitive and social factors, as well as external information, to support the child's construction of a linguistic system. Studies of atypical children offer a singular contribution to this enterprise by allowing us to see the specific influences of each component, and in turn, they shed new light on how all children are able to acquire language so effortlessly and during such a brief period of development.

In this book, Elinor Ochs explores the complex interaction of socialisation and language acquisition in children.

Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition is a comprehensive textbook that bridges the gap between the fields of sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, exploring the variety of ways in which social context influences the acquisition of a second language. It reviews basic principles of sociolinguistics, provides a unified account of the multiple theoretical approaches to social factors in second languages, summarizes the growing body of empirical research, including examples of findings from a wide range of second languages, and discusses the application of sociolinguistics to the second language classroom. Written for an audience that extends beyond specialists in the field, complete with summary tables, additional readings, discussion questions, and application activities throughout, this volume will serve as the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate or graduate students of second language acquisition and instruction, and will also be of interest to researchers in the fields of second language acquisition, second language instruction and sociolinguistics.