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.

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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
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