Doctoral Dissertation Research: Exploring the Emergence of Socialization in the Absence of a Shared Linguistic System

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University of California, San Diego doctoral candidate Sara Goico, supervised by Dr. John Haviland, will research how socialization emerges in the absence of a shared linguistic system. Linguistic anthropologists have long documented the importance of language in the socialization process. To further advance scientific understandings of the socialization process, the researcher explores how socialization can emerge in a context where a group of individuals do not have access to the language spoken by other members of their community. The researcher will investigate socialization among deaf children in Peru in inclusion classrooms, which is an appropriate site for such a project. In Peru, unlike the United States and many other countries, there is not an abundance hearing assistive technologies that allow socialization to emerge more rapidly; and Peruvian children do not have access to either a spoken or signed language. The socialization of these children will be observed through an entire year of inclusion education - the full-time placement of a deaf child in a regular education classroom of hearing students and teachers. This research is important to the field of language socialization because it will address two gaps in the current research - whether or not language is essential to membership in a community and how communicative resources other than spoken language are involved in the socialization process. The research will address the questions: 1. To what extent can individuals who do not have access to a shared and established language with the people around them become successful members of a community? 2. How does this process of socialization occur without a shared linguistic system? The researcher will spend 15 months in Peru following a small cohort of deaf students through their first year of inclusion education. The researcher will conduct participant observation, filming, and interviews in the inclusion classrooms and homes of a small group of deaf children. The analysis of this research will require generating detailed transcripts of video recorded classroom interactions between deaf students, their teachers, and peers. This research project has the potential to make significant theoretical contributions to our understanding of human communication and sociality. Recently, researchers in linguistic anthropology have argued for a more accurate and nuanced understanding of the full range of human communication and the place of language within this broader framework. By focusing on individuals who do not have direct access to a linguistic system, this project will make a significant effort to bring a broad semiotic perspective to the field of language socialization. Furthermore, this research occurs at a time when inclusion education is spreading rapidly around the globe, but research on the effects of these educational programs lags behind. This research has far-reaching potential to better understand the system of inclusion education for the deaf and to influence the policies and implementation of this educational system.