Language Socialization

Language socialization concerns the role language plays in a person becoming a member of a social group and how a learner is guided, overtly or covertly, to use language(s) as a cultural competency. Children’s early utterances and gestures are not primarily produced for referential purposes but rather as co-constructed social acts (e.g., ‘bye-bye,’ ‘uh-oh!,’ and ‘peekaboo!’). As individuals learn to participate in verbal activities and acquire the structural complexities of their language, they also learn what speaking (or not speaking) means in the community and how to use and attend to language as a way of knowing and being with others. Processes of language socialization with children are interwoven with semantic and pragmatic development and integral to the study of cognition from comparative and developmental perspectives. Initially focusing on learning a first language, the concept of language socialization has been extended to language practices and speech registers learned throughout the lifespan and to any novice developing a (sub)cultural identity or group membership, including situations of multilingualism, hybrid identities that draw on diverse linguistic and cultural inputs, and an individual- or population-level shift from using one language and set of cultural practices to another.