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

全球语言多样性正在减少。一个促成因素是，移民到东道国（如美国）的孩子被鼓励放弃他们的传统语言，转而学习占主导地位的语言。这被理解为促进社会融合和教育成功。然而，当一个孩子继续接受高等教育并最终进入工作场所时，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：孩子们在多大程度上能够说多种语言，而不影响他们早期的学业成就，以及社区和国家的团结意识？在这项由该奖项支持的研究中，加州大学洛杉矶分校的语言人类学博士生Teruko V. Mitsuhara将在Marjorie H. Goodwin博士的指导下前往一个不同寻常的地点，在那里，孩子们通过同伴社交成为多种语言的说者。这个地方的独特之处为研究儿童的多语言能力提供了一个理想的机会。这项研究将在印度西孟加拉邦的一个跨国村庄进行，这个村庄吸引了来自世界各地的移民。这些移民的孩子互相学习各种各样的语言。研究人员将把她的调查重点放在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性观察来收集儿童同伴群体互动和语言行为的数据。她将采访社区领袖、家长和老师；收集移民和语言历史；绘制儿童互动网络；定期进行词汇测试；并对儿童进行重点跟踪，并将录音录像记录下来，供后期技术分析使用。这项研究的结果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关系的语言人类学理论。

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.