Formal and informal academic language socialization of a bilingual child

Abstract

This ethnographic case study examines a bilingual child's academic socialization in both formal and informal academic communities. The study follows a high-achieving, bilingual student in a public US elementary school, who paradoxically is seen as a slow learner in her Korean-American Sunday school. From the academic socialization and community of practice perspectives, 360 contextual, interactional, and interview events gathered from both communities over the course of one year are analyzed. The findings indicate that explicit norms and peer collaboration have a considerable effect on a child's socialization in a formal academic school context, and furthermore, that the lenient, undisciplined environment and diverse language ideologies present in an informal bilingual academic context, such as a church's Sunday school, also considerably influence a child's socialization. This paper discusses how a bilingual child constructs multilingual and multicultural competences and identities through diverse and even conflicting socialization experiences from two different learning contexts.

Fluid identity play: A case study of a bilingual child’s ethnic identity construction across multiple contexts

“…The multiple ethnic identities are how she defines herself, which is unique and not necessarily consonant with others’ descriptions of her (Harklau, 2000; Kang and Lo, 2004). Bilingual children who engage in multiple communities combine their multiple memberships with their linguistically and culturally diverse experiences to construct their identities (Cho, 2016). As Wenger (1998) stated, “our various forms of participation delineate pieces of a puzzle we put together rather than sharp boundaries between disconnected parts of ourselves” (p. 159).…”

A Transdisciplinary Approach to Equitable Teaching in Early Childhood Education

“…Recent literature also highlights that in the process of learning languages, students develop awareness and domain of languages through active and dynamic experiences which often do not follow a predictable sequence (e.g., Cho, 2016; Durán, 2016; Genishi & Dyson, 2009; Guzman-Orth, Lopez, & Tolentino, 2017; Souto-Manning & Yoon, 2018). Guzman-Orth et al (2017) highlighted translanguaging as one defining characteristic of how language is dynamic and nonlinear.…”

“…Specifically, they used both English and Spanish to write for bilingual audiences, developing “spontaneous biliteracy,” the ability to write in Spanish without formal instruction (Durán, 2016, p. 109). Furthermore, academic socialization, the values and norms of an academic community, affects children’s dynamic language development (Cho, 2016; García-Sánchez, 2010). A bilingual child can be perceived as high achieving in one language context but not in another, depending on the differing social, cultural, and academic expectations (Souto-Manning & Martell, 2016; Souto-Manning & Yoon, 2018).…”

“…A bilingual child can be perceived as high achieving in one language context but not in another, depending on the differing social, cultural, and academic expectations (Souto-Manning & Martell, 2016; Souto-Manning & Yoon, 2018). Thus, academic socialization, including learning and teaching and adult perceptions of language, can affect bilingual children’s success in learning (Cho, 2016).…”

"Très bien. En français?" Multilingual Students Learning to Complete Their Thoughts in French (and English)

“…This ethnographic study is framed through the theoretical lens of language socialization (Ochs & Schieffelin, 1984, 2012Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986), and more particularly academic language socialization (Cho, 2016;Morita, 2009). Methodologically, Garrett (2017) posits that language socialization studies typically contain four characteristics: (1) longitudinal frame of study;…”