Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

432 Part 5: Language and Identity
Dean after the class applauds for having delivered the presentation in a
‘nice conversational manner . . . not reading . . . that’s good public speaking’.
The teacher was socializing students into (1) respectful behaviors as
audience members in a presentation, including silence and applause at the
end, and (2) appropriate presentation behaviors, among other messages.
Thus, one aspect of classroom socialization is teachers’ (and students’)
use of particular linguistic markers to stress the most important components
of the content or manner of such presentations, using intensifi ers, other
adverbs, emphatic speech, imperatives and adjectives describing presentations
(e.g. ‘wonderful, very interesting, concise, beautiful’ versus ‘long,
ill-prepared, unfocused’ (Duff, 1996, 2009); or ‘that’s excellent, ‘cause
you’re not reading’, in the previous excerpt. These terms not only relate to
the qualities of presentations but also to the hearer’s pleasure or displeasure
– their affective stance – with respect to certain kinds of linguistic
performance. In addition, their socializing messages are intended not only
for the current presenter but for the whole class. The subjectivities being
socialized in students might include the identity of a capable, comfortable,
and articulate presenter, a bilingual speaker, a good audience member, a
budding young scientist, someone who has just been to an interesting
tourist destination and has brought back an artifact from the trip, or an
experienced and mature language teacher or researcher in graduate school
(not just a ‘student’) who has valuable insights to share (see Garrett, 2007,
for a discussion of language socialization into particular subjectivities).
In my research on students’ socialization into and through recitation
practices in secondary schools in Hungary (Duff, 1995, 1996), I observed
how students were being socialized into the identity of educated
Hungarians with a thorough knowledge of history and an ability to
express themselves well: coherently, fl uently, accurately and especially
orally. Other recent research has also examined students’ socialization into
ideologies and identities connected with nationalism that were also linked
with language code choice (see Friedman, 2010).
Affective orientations or dispositions and values are commonly learned
together with, or through, language. Much early language socialization
research with young children, in particular, examined how fear, anger,
desire, shame, pride, excitement, or humility are socialized through language
and how, for instance, young children in a particular culture might
be taught to say certain things to avoid shame or, conversely, might be
taught to shame others who have acted unbecomingly. They also learn to
express and interpret anger, fear, affection or desire in culturally and linguistically
acceptable ways (for a review, see Ochs & Schieffelin, 2008).
Shaming or reprimanding has been a common theme in language socialization
work with children, both in and out of school, because it is such a
pervasive mechanism for ensuring that newcomers comply with local
norms rather than risk public or private humiliation by others. People