Chapter 20
Language and culture
description
Differences in the social roles of adults and
children also influence how language is used.
Home and school contexts may represent different
cultures, subcultures, or both and may influence
language acquisition in noticeable ways. Nonverbal
cues (e.g., facial expression) and contextual cues
(e.g., shared experience) have different
communicative roles in different cultures (Kaiser &
Rasminsky. In some cultures, prelinguistic children
(who are not yet verbalizing) are spoken about
rather than spoken to Children may be expected,
and thus taught, to speak only when an adult
addresses them. They are not encouraged to
initiate conversations with adults or to join
spontaneously in ongoing adult conversations.
Additionally, in some cultures, children who
enthusiastically volunteer answers at school are
considered show-offs (Peregoy & Boyle, 1993). In
some cultural settings, children are not asked
recitational questions. Instead, they are asked only
questions of clarification or for new information.
Thus, when these children experience recitational
questions in a school setting, they may be
confused as to the purpose of the questioning and
the expected response.
reflections
In this chapert we learned for
example At age 3,
disadvantaged children and
favored children showed
significant differences in the
way they use language. In
particular, disadvantaged
children do not use language
to remember and give details
of previous experiences,
anticipate events and possible
outcomes, reason about
current and remembered
events, solve problems using
the language of planning and
consider alternatives, arrive To
solutions, create and maintain
dramatic play events, and
understand the experiences
and feelings of others. When
these children were studied
again in 5 1/2 and 1/2 years,
disadvantaged children
produce shorter, less complex
responses.