Chapter 3. How do social networks influence children’s stylistic practices?
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Laurence Buson
Abstract
Studying children’s ability to construct themselves as pluristyle speakers goes hand-in-hand with studying their socialisation. Children’s conversational experiences are one of the key factors that allow them to integrate and participate in social life. This article will therefore present studies conducted in a school setting with the aim of better understanding the links between children’s stylistic usage and the social diversity of their social networks. The network approach has been widely used in adults but rarely with children and it allows the acquisition of variation to be considered in context, taking into account children’s horizontal socialisation beyond parental influences.
The present analysis will begin by looking briefly at existing work drawing on the notion of social networks in adults and teenagers in order to outline a number of related key research questions in terms of first-language acquisition. Some results obtained from a study conducted in Grenoble (France) with 10-11-year-old children will then be described (Buson 2009a, b). Finally, micro-sociolinguistic analysis will be used to return to some of the methodological issues that remain to be resolved in order to reach a more detailed understanding of the links between the acquisition of variation and the influence of peer networks.
Abstract
Studying children’s ability to construct themselves as pluristyle speakers goes hand-in-hand with studying their socialisation. Children’s conversational experiences are one of the key factors that allow them to integrate and participate in social life. This article will therefore present studies conducted in a school setting with the aim of better understanding the links between children’s stylistic usage and the social diversity of their social networks. The network approach has been widely used in adults but rarely with children and it allows the acquisition of variation to be considered in context, taking into account children’s horizontal socialisation beyond parental influences.
The present analysis will begin by looking briefly at existing work drawing on the notion of social networks in adults and teenagers in order to outline a number of related key research questions in terms of first-language acquisition. Some results obtained from a study conducted in Grenoble (France) with 10-11-year-old children will then be described (Buson 2009a, b). Finally, micro-sociolinguistic analysis will be used to return to some of the methodological issues that remain to be resolved in order to reach a more detailed understanding of the links between the acquisition of variation and the influence of peer networks.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Bridging the gap between language acquisition and sociolinguistics 1
- Chapter 2. The effects of exposure on awareness and discrimination of regional accents by five- and six year old children 43
- Chapter 3. How do social networks influence children’s stylistic practices? 65
- Chapter 4. Child acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 91
- Chapter 5. Acquiring attitudes towards varieties of Dutch 117
- Chapter 6. What is the target variety? 155
- Chapter 7. The relationship between segregation and participation in ethnolectal variants 185
- Chapter 8. Socializing language choices 213
- Chapter 9. Language acquisition in bilectal environments 235
- Chapter 10. Acquisition of phonological variables of a Flemish dialect by children raised in Standard Dutch 267
- Chapter 11. Developmental sociolinguistics and the acquisition of T-glottalling by immigrant teenagers in London 305
- Author index 343
- Subject index 345
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Bridging the gap between language acquisition and sociolinguistics 1
- Chapter 2. The effects of exposure on awareness and discrimination of regional accents by five- and six year old children 43
- Chapter 3. How do social networks influence children’s stylistic practices? 65
- Chapter 4. Child acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 91
- Chapter 5. Acquiring attitudes towards varieties of Dutch 117
- Chapter 6. What is the target variety? 155
- Chapter 7. The relationship between segregation and participation in ethnolectal variants 185
- Chapter 8. Socializing language choices 213
- Chapter 9. Language acquisition in bilectal environments 235
- Chapter 10. Acquisition of phonological variables of a Flemish dialect by children raised in Standard Dutch 267
- Chapter 11. Developmental sociolinguistics and the acquisition of T-glottalling by immigrant teenagers in London 305
- Author index 343
- Subject index 345
