LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:4 April 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001




BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!


REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES


  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.
  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.
  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2020
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA


Custom Search

Multilingualism in Children:
Communicative Competence as a Socialization Pattern

Jayashree Aanand Gajjam, M.A. Sanskrit, PhD Research Scholar


Abstract

Children show tremendous abilities in their language acquisition and language use. The current research reports the patterns in the language use of Arya, a four-year-old, female, neurologically healthy, multilingual child in India. A subjective report based on the observations of conversations in person and over phone calls obtained over a span of more than two and half years suggests that, in cross-cultural settings, multilingual children display communicative competence in their language use without any special instructions, provided they are exposed to the optimum amount of linguistic exposure. This research argues that children use their communicative competence as a socialization pattern to identify themselves with kith and kin. The research also hints at the future scope in pedagogy in general and in creating language teaching models, in particular.

Keywords: Multilingualism in children, communicative competence, language use, sociolinguistics

Introduction

A child is said to be a ‘Language Acquisition Device’ (LAD) and a ‘Little intellectual marvel’ whose capacities in learning and using a language should not be underestimated. Several studies in psycholinguistics have argued that an average, neurologically healthy child, in a natural environment, can acquire her native tongue by the age of two years, without any special instructions or deliberate efforts. All the child need is sufficient language data that would work as an environmental stimulus triggering the language development in children.

Going beyond the language acquisition system in children, the current report focuses on the actual language use or linguistic performance of a four-year-old female child in India. The study displays the ability of Arya in using five different languages in different environmental settings. It will be argued that children use their capacity to use appropriate language in different situations as a socialization pattern. Their decision in language use adheres to their convergence behaviour, that is, their attempt in identifying themselves with the audience during a speech act. This intricate manoeuvre on their part is being accomplished without any deliberate teaching. The next section on literature review fashions the cortège for the argument of this paper.


This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Jayashree Aanand Gajjam, M.A. Sanskrit
PhD Research Scholar
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
jayashree1aanand@gmail.com

Custom Search


  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.