Bilingual socialization and the development of interactional resources

Abstract

Developing interactional competencies is crucial in order to become a proficient speaker. Adopting a qualitative approach, we analyze how exposure to bilingual practices contributes to the acquisition of interactional and pragmatic skills. The analyses draw from data in two corpora collected from two families living in Veneto (Italy) where Venetan (the regional and minoritized language) and Italian are spoken in the community. In the first family, the target child is a boy toddler (17 – 30 months) and in the second family, the target children are two sisters (aged 5 and 9 years). Our analyses focus on the specific functions bilingual productions cover. Experiencing a bilingual input could provide important socialization cues enhancing children’s social interactional and pragmatic skills, possibly preempting ideological forces that shape the statuses of the languages involved. We discuss the implications of these results in a context where the languages spoken do not benefit from the same social status.