Langue et lieu dans l’univers de l’enfance

Les voix de l’enfance, rappelées par les auteurs en exil ou de la diaspora, témoignent des liens forts et permanents qui unissent la langue, le lieu, les souvenirs et l’identité. La recherche en socialisation langagière nous offre une perspective complémentaire pour comprendre comment les enfants sont socialisés et intégrés dans des univers sociaux existants et comment ils en construisent de nouveaux à leur image. Des données ethnographiques et sociolinguistiques recueillies en Dominique (dans les Antilles orientales) et en territoire Kaluli (en Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée) illustrent l’importance du lieu et le rôle que jouent la ou les langues dans la négociation des relations sociales et les souvenirs qui s’y rattachent. La langue fournit aussi à l’enfant les ressources symboliques qui lui sont nécessaires pour déterminer quelle langue utiliser où, dans quelle circonstance et avec qui et pour construire ses narrations et son jeu. Puisque les activités langagières sont toujours localisées dans des lieux particuliers et portent souvent sur des lieux particuliers, les enfants qui commencent juste à parler sont déjà sensibles et initiés aux significations du lieu et aux façons de parler du lieu qui sont propres à leur culture.Voices remembered from childhood, and retrieved by diasporic and exiled writers attest to the profound connections between language, place, memory and identity. Research on children’s language socialization provides a complementary perspective for understanding the ways in which young children are socialized into existing social worlds, as well as seeing how they create their own. Ethnographic and sociolinguistic data from two societies, Dominica (West Indies) and Kaluli (Papua New Guinea) illustrates the importance of place and the role of language(s) in mediating social relationships and remembering them, as well as providing symbolic resources for narrative, language choice and play. As speech activities are always located in particular places, and are often about particular places, even in their earliest use of language, children are sensitive to and learn culturally specific meanings of and ways of talking about place.Las voces de la infancia, rememorada por los autores en exilio o de la diáspora, demuestran los lazos fuertes y permanentes que unen la lengua, el lugar, los recuerdos y la identidad. La investigación en socialización lingüística nos ofrece una perspectiva complementaria para comprender cómo los niños son socializados e integrados en universos sociales existentes y cómo construyen otros conforme a su imagen. Los datos etnográficos y sociolingüísticos recogidos en Dominica en las Antillas orientales y en territorio Kaluli en Papuasia, Nueva Guinea ilustran la importancia del lugar y del rol que juegan las lenguas en la negociación de las relaciones sociales y de los recuerdos que generan. La lengua ofrece a los niños los recursos simbólicos necesarios para determinar qué lengua utilizar donde, en qué circunstancia et con quien, y en la construcción de sus relatos y de sus juego. Puesto que las actividades lingüísticas están siempre localizadas en lugares particulares y tratan de situaciones particulares, incluso los niños que comienzan a hablar comprenden los significados del lugar y las maneras de hablar de los lugares apropiados para su cultura

A Letter from Samuel B. Schieffelin to A. C. Van Raalte

A letter from Samuel B. Schieffelin to A.C.V.R. regarding property matters. Schieffelin seems to have a high regard for Van Raalte. The author also makes some medicinal recommendations for A.C.V.R.\u27s health problems.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1850s/1367/thumbnail.jp

This Document is an Assignment of a Mortgage Concerning Property Matters Between Albertus and Christina Van Raalte and Samuel B. Schieffelin of New York.

This document is an assignment of a mortgage concerning property matters between Albertus and Christina Van Raalte and Samuel B. Schieffelin of New York.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1860s/1258/thumbnail.jp

This Document is the Satisfaction of a Mortgage Made Between Samuel B. Schieffelin of New York and Albertus and Christina Van Raalte in the Amount of $873.85

This document is the satisfaction of a mortgage made between Samuel B. Schieffelin of New York and Albertus and Christina Van Raalte in the amount of $873.85.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1860s/1259/thumbnail.jp

Bilingual episodic memory: an introduction

Our current models of bilingual memory are essentially accounts of semantic memory whose goal is to explain bilingual lexical access to underlying imagistic and conceptual referents. While this research has included episodic memory, it has focused largely on recall for words, phrases, and sentences in the service of understanding the structure of semantic memory. Building on the four papers in this special issue, this article focuses on larger units of episodic memory(from quotidian events with simple narrative form to complex autobiographical memories) in service of developing a model of bilingual episodic memory. This requires integrating theory and research on how culture-specific narrative traditions inform encoding and retrieval with theory and research on the relation between(monolingual) semantic and episodic memory(Schank, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1995; Tulving, 2002). Then, taking a cue from memory-based text processing studies in psycholinguistics(McKoon & Ratcliff, 1998), we suggest that as language forms surface in the progressive retrieval of features of an event, they trigger further forms within the same language serving to guide a within-language/ within-culture retrieval

Submerged in the mainstream? A case study of an immigrant learner in a New Zealand primary classroom

Immigrant children from diverse language backgrounds face not only linguistic challenges when enrolled in mainstream English-medium classrooms, but also difficulties adjusting to an unfamiliar learning community. The culture of primary school classrooms in New Zealand typically reflects conventions across three dimensions: interactional, instructional task performance and cognitive-academic development. All three dimensions are underpinned by the culturally specific discourse conventions involved in language socialisation. New learners may be helped by classmates or their teacher to understand and successfully use these conventions, but left on their own they may sink rather than swim. This is a case study of one Taiwanese 11-year old boy, 'John', who entered a New Zealand primary classroom midway through the school year. John's basic conversational ability was sound, but he did not possess the interactive classroom skills needed to operate in the new culture of learning. Selected from a wider study of the classroom, transcript data from audio-recorded excerpts of John's interactions over several months with his teacher and classmates are interpreted from perspectives derived from sociocultural and language socialisation theories. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the extent to which John constructed, or was constrained from constructing meaningful learning experiences, and suggestions for further research and reflection

“No, no Maama! Say ‘Shaatir ya Ouledee Shaatir’!” Children’s agency in language use and socialisation

Aims and objectives: This paper investigates how children in multilingual and transnational families mobilise their multiple and developing linguistic repertoires creatively to assert their agency in language use and socialisation, and why these acts of agency are conducive to successful maintenance of the so-called “home”, “community” or “minority” language. Methodology: Close, qualitative analysis of mealtime multiparty conversations is carried out to examine children’s agency in language use and socialisation. Data and analysis: Twelve hours of mealtime conversations within one Arabic and English speaking multilingual family in the UK were recorded over a period of eight months. The excerpts selected for analysis in this paper illustrate how agency is enacted in interaction. Findings: The data analyses of the family’s language practices reveal both their flexible language policy and the importance the family attaches to Arabic. The children in this family are fully aware of the language preferences of their parents and are capable of manipulating that knowledge and asserting their agency through their linguistic choices to achieve their interactional goals. Originality: This paper explores how Arabic is maintained as a minority language by second and third generations of Arabic-speaking immigrants in the UK through close analysis of conversations. Significance: The findings contribute to the current discussions of family language policy and maintenance by demonstrating children’s agentive and creative roles in language use and socialisation. Three factors are identified as the reason for the successful language learning, use and maintenance of Arabic: firstly, a family language policy that has a positive multilingual outlook; secondly, family relationship dynamics that connect and bond family members; and thirdly, the children’s highly developed ability to understand their parents’ language preferences