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Pragmatic Socialization

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Language Socialization

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education ((ELE))

Abstract

This chapter reviews literature in both first language (L1) pragmatic socialization and the pragmatic (re)socialization or ongoing socialization of learners in various learning contexts in bilingual and multilingual societies. The studies reveal aspects of the acquisition of language and sociocultural competence as developmentally intertwined processes occurring within daily routine activities. In these settings, children and other novices learn to interpret, negotiate, and index meaning while (co-)constructing different types of social/cultural identities and relationships. Research done within the framework of pragmatic socialization demonstrates a more social and contextual orientation than traditional interlanguage pragmatics, offering researchers opportunities to look at the interactive nature and the social functions of pragmatic behaviors and linguistic forms that are deeply embedded in the rapidly changing, multilingual world in new and illuminating ways.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A Discourse-Completion Task (DCT) is a tool used in linguistics and especially pragmatics research to elicit particular speech acts. A DCT consists, typically, of a series of written situational prompts (utterances) that a research subject reads, each of which prompts elicits a pragmatic response (speech act) appropriate to the situation. For example, the prompt might indicate that someone is offended about something that the DCT completer has said or done (Prompt: “I am offended by what you just said!”); the research subject is then prompted to produce a suitable response, in the form of a short written apology (e.g., “I’m sorry I offended you; I didn’t mean to do so…”).

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Correspondence to Duanduan Li .

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Li, D. (2017). Pragmatic Socialization. In: Duff, P., May, S. (eds) Language Socialization. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02327-4_5-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02327-4_5-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02327-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02327-4

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Pragmatic Socialization
    Published:
    21 March 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02327-4_5-2

  2. Original

    Pragmatic Socialization
    Published:
    12 November 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02327-4_5-1