DOCUMENT RESUME ED 029 294 AL 001 940 By-Ervin-Tripp. Susan Summer Workshops in Sociolinguistics:Research on Children's Acquisition of CommunicativeCompetence. California Univ.. Berkeley.: Social Science ResearchCouncil. New York. N.Y. Committee on Sociolinguistics. Pub Date Jun 69 Note- 5p. Available from-Limited number of copiesavailable from the Social Science ResearchCouncil. 230 Park Avenue, New York. N.Y. 10017. Journal Cit-Items: v23 n2 Jun 69 EDRS Price MF-$0.25 HC-$0.35 Descriptors- Child Language. °CrossCultural Studies. Cultural Differences. DoctoralPrograms. Intercultural Programs. Interdisciplinary Approach.Language Usage. Nonverbal Communication. ResearchDesign. Research Methodology.Sociocultural Patterns.Sociolinguistics. Student Research. Summer Workshops. Verbal Commuira*7-tion During the summer of1968 a special summer program insociolinguistics (Language. Society, and theChild') was held at the University ofCalifornia. Berkeley. This program grew out of theresearch on 'children's language acquisition in avariety of cultures* which has beenunderway at that institutionfor four years. Originally it was planned torestrict the program to32 pre- and post-doctoral students with backgrounds in linguistics and, thesocial sciences. Among these were sevenwho had recently returned from makingfieldstudies. guided by the 'Field Manualfor Cross-Cultural Study of theAcquisition of Communicative Competence*(ED 015 434). The participants attended fourworkshops. each restricted to eight participants: one on child grammar.two on sociolinguistics.and one on child phonology.They also took courses in theregular University summer program.It was found. upon opening the workshops to auditors, that the extraparticipants were one of the-factors working against successful analysisof the field data. Some of the importanttopics which were discussed werethe structure of early grammaticalconstructions, the rules for social uses of language in children'scultures, and the effects of themilieu of the child on the rateand type of language development.The effectiveness of these workshops as trainingdevices is also evaluated in thisarticle. (JD) WELFARE U.S. DEPARTMENT OfHEALTH, EDUCATION & OFFICE OF EDUCATION EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROMTHE '1 THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED POINTS OF VIEW OROPiNIONS rAPERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. Eattat STATErake NECESSARILYREPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF POSITION OR FOLICY. RESEARCH ONCHILDREN'S SUMMER WORKSHOPSINSOCIOLINGUISTICS: ACQUISITION OFCOMMUNICATIVECOMPETENCE by Susan Ervin-Tripp* in foreign cultures as thetests in themanual while living DURING the past )7:our years, aresearch group at completion studyingparticipant observers for a year ormore after University of California,Berkeley, has been training. variety of cultures.of their formalanthropological and linguistic children's languageacquisition in a consisted of fourworkshops, Sociolinguistics, because The summer program The Council'sCommittee on participants: one on child grammar, earlier research onsuch learningeach restricted to 8 of its concern that most conducted by Slobin; two onsociolinguistics, conducted the processes bywhich children had largely neglected by Ervin-Tripp andGumperz; and one onchild learn not simply the grammarand phonetics of a Stanford different social con-phonology, conducted byCharles Ferguson of language, but whenand howin Sociolin- extend theUniversity (chairman ofthe Committee on textsto useit, encouragedthe group to wereparticularly geographically andsubstan-guistics). The sociolinguistics groups scope ofits project both in assessing beliefsabout lan- field studies in severaldifferent areasconcerned with problems tively, to include guage, studyingcode-switching, discoveringsociolin- of the world and toinvestigate the broaderaspects of meaning of "acquisition of communi-guistic rules, anddetermining the social learning implied in the term was tointegrate micro- Thus the group hasbeen concernedspeech variation. Their purpose cative competence." sociolinguistics by relatingthe insights ofgenerative of that subject: (1)What features of with three aspects grammar tosocial interactiontheory, in the context of phonological, grammatical,and semanticdevelopment be related tospecific research problems. seem tobe universal?What features can included 32 pre- and post- (2) What are The workshop participants special structuresin particular languages? backgrounds in linguisticsand development in varioussocial uses ofdoctoral students with the patterns of the social sciences.Among these were sevenwho had language? How earlyand in whatforms do sociolin- guided by relations betweenrecently returned frommaking field studies, guistic rules appear?(3) What are the which had also been usedby the direc- organization of thecommunity, valuesaboutthe Field Manual the social tors of theworkshops in their ownresearch.2 The language and its uses,and how thechild is spoken to seven fieldworkers visited thevarious workshops when and rewarded forspeaking? in the field and collaborators havebeen Johncalled upon, todiscuss their experience In this project my in collecting andanalyzing data. and linguist, DanSlobin, psy-problems encountered Gumperz, anthropologist distinguished visitingscholars took part of advancedgraduate studentsA number of cholinguist, and a group weeks in the workshops; someof them in preparationof a preliminaryFieldfor one to three who participated also gave publiclectures.3 The workshopparticipants Manual to guidetheir joint effortsin sites around the appeared in the world.' The firstfruits of this research who had completed fieldwork prior to the 2 The seven students Blount, data and experiencebrought summer sessionand the sites oftheir research were: Ben summerof 1968 in the Samoa; Claudia Mitchell students, who hadattempted to apply the Kenya; Jan Brukman,India; Keith Kernan, back by these (blacks); Brian Stross,Mexico; Rodney Vlasek, Kernan, California participating in Nigeria; Carolyn Wardrip,California (whites). Also Professor of Rhetoric at theUniversity of California, about to begin research in * The author is the workshops wereDavid Argoff who was Berkeley, and a memberof the Council'sCommittee on Sociolinguistics. bilinguals, and EdwardHernandez, on Professor of Anthropology, also Finland on Russian-Finnish With her colleaguesJohn J. Gumperz, Funds for the field workof Messrs. Dan I. Slobin, AssociateProfessor of Mexican-American bilinguals. had been pro- a member ofthe committee, and Argoff and Brukman, Mrs.Kernan, and Miss Wardrip engaged for some time inresearch on chil- supported Psychology, she has been vided from the committee'sresearch budget; the others were learning and in preparationof a manual of field study the National Sdence Founda- dren's language by other agencies.A training grant from granted to the Councilby the National Science following students fromvarious universities to at- methods. With funds GZ-994) for the com- tion enabled the Foundation (Grant Nos.GS-1241, GS-1919, and before undertaking fieldwork: Kay Atkinson, provided for field work in1966-68 by tend the workshops J. Mehan, P. David mittee's program, support was Mary Ann Campbell,Ronald W. Casson, Sybillyn associated with the project.The summer work- Risen, James N. Schenkein,Abigail B. Sher, predoctoral students partially Pavy,III, Diana J. here were cosponsored bythe committee and Merrill K. Swain. shops described will appear as "The Sandra M. Storm, and supported by its funds.Part of the present report given on child language,by Edward Klima and Competence by Children inDifferent 3 Public lectures were into diversity of language Acquisition of Communicative Martin Braine; onsocial factors entering Cultures," in Proceedinpof the EighthInternational Congress of Bernstein, Vera John, andCourtney Cazden; on Sciences, in press. and its use, by Basil Jakobovits; on Ethnological and Anthropological cross-cultural studies ofaffective meaning, by Leon ed., Field Manual forCross-Cultural Study of the Schegloff; and on com- 1 Dan I. Slobin, units in naturalconversation, by Emanuel Communicative Competence,University of California, their visits, the work- Acquisition of municative competence,by Dell Hymes. Besides Berkeley, ASUC Store,1967. IPIF VOLUME 23, NUMBER 2 224O1O were offered courses in the regular summer programand analysis of the data collected by others. From these of the University, according to the convenience of thepapers 4 and the discussions, the issues considered in the relevant departments. These courses included trans-workshops will next be illustrated. formational grammar, phonetics, child language, lan- The first area of concern, traditional structural de- guage and society, and language and the individual. velopment, has the longest and richest history, but we The actual operation of the summer program waswished to extend knowledge of the variety of language somewhat different than we had expected. The moststructures. The field workers found that the earliest conspicuous change was in the composition of the work-sentences in English, Luo, and Samoan are so similar shops. The original restriction of each to 8 students wasin structure and content as to seem like translations. based on the belief that a larger group would work lessThe most interesting test for these early fixed-order efficiently. However, many more students were per-sentences was Finnish, since the adult model has free mitted to audit the workshops, and the effect was to alterword order. Melissa Bowerman, a graduate student at completely the nature