Doctoral Dissertation Research: The linguistic ecology of mobile childhoods: peer socialization and multilingualism

博士论文研究：流动童年的语言生态：同伴社会化和多语言

• 批准号: 1627676
• 负责人: Marjorie Goodwin
• 金额: $ 1.56万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-15 至 2017-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1627676&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; linguistic; ecology

Global linguistic diversity is decreasing. One contributing factor is that children of immigrants to host countries such as the United States are encouraged to abandon their heritage languages in favor of learning the dominant language. This is understood to facilitate social integration and educational success. However, as a child moves on to higher education and eventually to the workplace, multi-linguistic facility may be considered an asset rather than a handicap. This raises the question of to what extent are children capable of speaking multiple languages without compromising their early academic success as well as a sense of unity within communities and nations. In the research supported by this award, University of California, Los Angeles, linguistic anthropology doctoral student, Teruko V. Mitsuhara, supervised by Dr. Marjorie H. Goodwin, will travel to an unusual site where children are peer-socialized into being speakers of multiple languages. The unique features of the place provide an ideal opportunity to pursue these important questions of children's multi-linguistic capacity.The research will be carried out in a transnational village located in the state of West Bengal, India, that has attracted immigrants from around the world. The children of these immigrants learn a wide range of range of languages from each other. The researcher will focus her investigation on children ages 8 through 11. She will collect data on children's peer group interactions and language behaviors through participant observation in classrooms, teacher meetings, and play groups. She will interview community leaders, parents, and teachers; collect migration and language histories; map children's interaction networks; administer vocabulary tests at regular intervals; and carry out focal follows of children, which she will audio-video record for later technical analysis. Findings from this research will help educators encourage constructive multi-linguistic competence, while also contributing to linguistic anthropological theory of the relationship between culture, language socialization, and community.

全球语言多样性正在减少。 一个促成因素是，移民到美国等东道国的儿童被鼓励放弃他们的传统语言，转而学习主导语言。这被理解为促进社会融合和教育成功。然而，随着孩子接受高等教育并最终进入工作场所，多语言能力可能被视为一种资产，而不是一种障碍。这就提出了一个问题，即儿童在多大程度上能够讲多种语言，而不影响他们早期的学业成功以及社区和国家内部的团结感。在该奖项支持的研究中，加州大学洛杉矶分校语言人类学博士生Teruko V. Mitsuhara在Marjorie H.古德温将前往一个不寻常的网站，在那里孩子们是同龄人社会化成为多种语言的发言者。这个地方的独特之处提供了一个理想的机会来探讨儿童多语言能力的这些重要问题。研究将在印度西孟加拉的一个跨国村庄进行，该村庄吸引了来自世界各地的移民。这些移民的孩子们互相学习各种各样的语言。研究人员将把调查重点放在8到11岁的儿童身上。她将通过课堂、教师会议和游戏小组的参与观察来收集儿童同伴群体互动和语言行为的数据。她将采访社区领导人，家长和教师;收集移民和语言历史;绘制儿童的互动网络;定期进行词汇测试;并对儿童进行重点跟踪，她将录制音频视频以供日后进行技术分析。本研究的发现将有助于教育工作者鼓励建设性的多语言能力，同时也有助于文化，语言社会化和社区之间的关系的语言人类学理论。