Language socialization across borders

Abstract

Recent scholarship on language use has developed a resurgent interest in the complex interrelationship of language and materiality; given its longstanding investigation of both non-verbal communication and political economy, language socialization research is well-positioned to make important contributions to this investigation of language materiality. This paper advances such a project by demonstrating how the discursive processes of language socialization make the material affectively meaningful. Through an exploration of prompting interactions in cross-border conversations within transnational Salvadoran families, the paper elucidates how processes of material-affective semiosis produce subject positions that are made normative for some individuals, in this case, differentiating between migrant and non-migrant kin. Drawing out the role of materiality in such processes thus reveals how language socialization functions as a scale-making resource that turns the inequalities of transnational migration into constitutive features of family life.

Making Choices in Discourse: New Alternative Masculinities Opposing the “Warrior’s Rest”

“…Beyond the importance of these elements, the influence of social networks and friendship on romantic relationships and partner choice during the start of the relationship and throughout the relationship is clearly crucial (Wright and Sinclair, 2012;Killoren et al, 2019;Elboj-Saso et al, 2020). Also, research on the language use emphasizes the potential of language in socialization processes (Burdelski, 2013;Rios-González et al, 2018;Arnold, 2019) and in the transmission of patterns of gender inequalities among children (da Luz Scherf et al, 2020). Regarding partner choice, other researchers report that young girls are more influenced by the popularity and prestige of their potential partners (Little et al, 2015;Gouda-Vossos et al, 2018).…”