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Quick questions or quandaries?

AnnouncementsDon't forget to turn in your reading questions for Ochs, 1986.We will be talking about symbols on Monday. Bring in some examples of symbols and icons to share with the class.We have a guest speaker on Tuesday. Please make sure you are well prepared for his presentation.

Todays Topic:Theories of language development, cont.

Small Group Activity:What do you think Ochs (1986) meant when she wrote that language socialization refers to both "socialization through language and socialization to language" (p. 2)?How does this relate to individuals with intensive communication needs?20 minutes!

Quick WriteDefine language socialization in your own terms.

Ways to contrast approach to language development: Language is separate from cognitionLanguage is a subset of cognition

Ways to contrast approaches to language development: Focus on competenceFocus on performance

Competence is the speaker-hearers knowledge of his language and performance is the actual use of language in concrete situations.Chomsky, 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, p. 4)

Focus on Linguistic CompetenceLinguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly and in unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance.Chomsky, 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, p. 3)

The problem for the linguist, as well as for the child learning the language, is to determine from the data of performance the underlying system of rules that has been mastered by the speaker-hearer and that he puts into actual performance. Hence, in the technical sense, linguistic theory is mentalistic, since it is concerned with discovering a mental reality underlying actual behavior.Chomsky, 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, p. 3)

Whats the problem for language socialization?

Ochs, 1986, p. 11)

What does it mean to know a language?

What is Socialization? ...an interactional display (covert or overt) to a novice of expected ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. (Ochs, 1986)

One critical area of social competence a child must acquire is the ability to recognize/ interpret what social event is taking place and to speak and act in ways that are sensitive to the context. (Ochs, 1986, p. 3) Language Socialization

Social Events???

Attending church

Hanging with my bud.

The Job Interview

Closing the Deal

Family Counseling Session

Telephone Conversations

socialization through languageandsocialization to use language

Johnny, Dont say Bob, say Dr. Jones

Socialization through language:children and other novices in society acquire tacit knowledge of principles of social order and systems of belief (ethnotheories) through exposure to and participation in language-mediated interaction. (Ochs, 1986, pp. 2-3)

Socialization through language, cont.grammatical and conversational structuresare also culturally organized and as such expressive of local conceptions and theories about the world. Language use then is a major if not the major tool for conveying sociocultural knowledge and a powerful medium of socialization. In this sense, we suggest that children acquire a world view as they acquire a language. (Ochs, 1986, pp. 2-3)

The Transactional Model of Communication Development This perspective emphasizes the reciprocal, bidirectional influence of the communication environment, the responsiveness of communicative partners, and the child's own developing communicative competence

Transactional Model, cont.For example, this model assumes that the increasing readability or clarity of the child's communicative behavior may influence the parent's style and frequency of contingent responsiveness in ways that will further scaffold the child's developing competence during the transition to linguistic communication. (Wetherby, Warren, & Reichle, 1998, p. 2)

Another definitionChildren are viewed as active participants who learn to affect the behavior and attitudes of others through active signaling and who gradually learn to use more sophisticated and conventional means to communicate through caregivers contingent social responsiveness. (Kublin et al., 1998, p. 286)

AndThe quality and nature of the contexts in which interaction occurs are considered to have a great influence on the successful acquisition of language and communicative behavior... development can be understood only by analysis of the interactive context, not simply by focusing solely on the child or the caregivers, because successful communication involves reciprocity and mutual negotiation." (Kublin et al., 1998, p. 286)

TheCommunication EnvironmentThe responsiveness of communicative partnersThe childs developing communicative competence

Todays Main Points:Children are active participants in their own language development. Children develop language within a social context -- language is not learned without interacting with others. Children learn about the way their society is organized and about their culture by learning their language.

Main points, cont.:We speak differently in different contexts, i.e. with friends versus during religious ceremonies. By learning to speak in different situations, we learn about how our culture is organized.By participating in cultural events, we learn language.Therefore, active participation in meaningful communicative interactions is necessary for develop language.

Looking aheadCultural differences in the development of communication

.Please take a minute for the minute paper.