I read and reveiwed a book called _Children's Talk in Communities and
School_ that described the patterns of language use in the neighborhoods
of working class Anglos and African Americans.(This was in N. Carolina
with interesting links to S.B. Heath's _Ways with Words_.)
The Anglo kids mostly talked to and with kids their own age when they
played in the neighborhood. The African American kids did much more
talking in mixed age groups. The author suggests that African American
kids learn that the purpose of language interactions is to sustain the
interaction. The Anglo kids learn that the purpose of interacting with
adults is to learn the correct thing to say or do. So the Anglos can
interact with teachers in school in ways that lead them to succeed
academically and are appreciated by the teachers. The African American
kids were viewed by the teachers as "uppity" and "unmotivated."
I am generalizing like mad, here, but I want to say that the way someone
learns language _is_ the "natural" way. In the sense that there is no
useful distinction between "natural" and "cultural."
Studies like the one I mentioned point to differences in cultural
understandings of language "skill," not to higher and lower acheivements
in "skill", or (imagine me holding this word out between thumb and
forefinger as far away from my nose as possible) "acquisition."
Kathie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Life's backwards,
Life's backwards,
People, turn around.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Sinead O'Connor and John Reynolds
Fire on Babylon: Universal Mother^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html