Language Socialization

Language socialization refers to the process by which individuals acquire the knowledge and practices that enable them to participate effectively in a language community. Based on concepts related to language acquisition and anthropology, language socialization theory is a theory of language learning that argues that one learns language and culture simultaneously. In other words, when someone learns a language, by definition that person is also learning culture. From a language socialization perspective, language and culture are inseparable; that is, one is simultaneously learning language (linguistic knowledge) and acquiring socio-cultural knowledge (how to use language in context). Language socialization theory differs from other theories of socialization in that it argues that language is the primary symbolic medium through which cultural knowledge is communicated, and therefore [Page 490]reproduced. Specifically, language socialization theory developed as a response to other theories of first-language acquisition prevalent in the 1960s and 1970s that did not consider the sociocultural context, and instead focused on the internal, cognitive aspects of language learning.

Initially, language socialization theory was developed as an explanation for infants' and young children's development of their first language. Early scholars and the main architects of this theory, Elinor Ochs and Bambi Schieffelin, examined the process of first-language acquisition in a cultural context through detailed ethnographic studies of small, often isolated monolingual societies. From these studies, a view emerged explaining that the process of learning a language is a social activity that relies on the building up of routines of interactions. This early work, although not directly focused on issues of bilingualism and bilingual education, paved the way for other studies that directly addressed the issue of how language socialization in the home could differentially affect the experiences of children when they attend school.

Beginning in the 1990s, a second generation of studies in language socialization broadened the scope of research to look explicitly at the processes of socialization in cultural contexts other than the home environment. These studies focused on understanding the processes of language socialization in bilingual and multilingual contexts. This entry describes the development of language socialization theory.