Responses to CHILDES inquiry on belonging and acculturation

[Laurie Tasharski]

Many thanks to those who responded to the request for information about native
speaking children’s identification of dialect, accent, and slang as a factor in
group belonging and acculturation.  In my study, many (8 out of 11) native
English speaking transitors spoke of emotional reactions to colloquial English
spoken in Ireland and some (3 out of 11) adopted or ‘put on’  accents,
presumably to increase social affiliation (reasoning and level of denial
varied).

The area of accents and dialects as a part of social identity is well
researched.  Peter Trudgill’s _Social Differentiation of English in Norwich_
(Cambridge U Press 1974) is a much cited study.  Tajfel also tied language to
ethnic identity and self-image.  Not surprisingly, there are many studies from
the UK of accents and/or dialects and correlations to prestige, conformity,
stereotypes and social group membership.  Gumpez, as noted by one respondent,
also explored this area.  Theorists in Intercultural Communication and Culture
Shock also mention this phenomenon in transitors, although the tendency for
such dissonance to be ephemeral may explain the lack of dedicated studies.

The CHILES responses I received are as follows:

1.	_Three is a Crowd?_ by  Madalena Cruz-Ferreira
, particularly chapters 9 and 11. (Book URL with ToC at
http://www.multilingual-matters.com/multi/display.asp?isb=1853598380  )
The kind of difficulties that Laurie mentions were also part of my children's
switches between their cultures. They reported spontaneously on them, and they
were taunted by peers in their two countries for several years because of lack
of proficiency in current slang and 'cool' ways of expressing themselves in
their languages, Portuguese and Swedish..

2.	It may not be a direct hit, but certain "definitions, terminology,
theories or similar findings" can be found in my article "Dialect
acquisition" in Language 68 (1992), where I tracked six Canadian kids whose
families had moved to southeast England. It is probably heavier on
linguistics and lighter on attitudes and feelings than your correspondent
might want, but it should be relevant. That article gives a lot of credit to
Peter's (Trudgill) book Dialects in Contact (Blackwell 1986) which covers many
casesand talks about them discursively. :  from:  Jack Chambers
[mailto:jack.chambers at utoronto.ca

3.	sociolinguists and anthropologists
have worked on this -- not necessary with children, however.  Have a
look at work by John Gumperz to start with. From: Ruth Berman

4.	this is with an older child and she's not English L1, but I
wanted to make sure you had read Charlotte Hoffman's
Lost in Translation. This is an account of a very aware and
articulate teenager's transition between cultures.



Thanks and regards,

Laurie Tasharski