Language Socialization Theory and “once upon a Time When We Were Colored”

Language Socialization Theory

Robert Purple

HMD 306:

Language Narrative and Self

Professor Welles-Nystrцm

Due October 11th

Robert Purple

Language Socialization Theory and “Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored”

The language socialization theory can be defined as the perspective that socio-cultural information is generally encoded in the organization of conversational discourse and this encoded information aids in the gain of tacit knowledge of principles of social order and systems of belief. In other words, part of the meaning of grammatical and conversational structures is socio-cultural and can affect others being introduced to that culture. Language socialization research has traditionally focused on how young children and outsiders of a culture are socialized into the norms and patterns of their culture by and through language. To understand what language socialization is, the word language must first be defined. The dictionary gives many definitions of what language is but the one that pertains most to the language socialization theory is this, “any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures, or the like used or conceived as a means of communicating thought, emotion, etc.” By this definition language can be anything that a person does to communicate a thought or feeling. Body language, facial expressions, hand gestures and speech are all forms of language. So in this paper when language is refer to it include all types of language, both spoken and non-spoken.

When language is looked at from a cultural perspective, many people have said that language is what shapes the person we become. It is obvious that all cultures have there own form of language as well as there own ways of socializing the members of that specific culture. Culture is defined as “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group” Culture is the most important factor involved in how language and moral-persona develops in an individuals life. Culture defines who we are entirely. There are many different kinds of cultures and levels of cultures, meaning that within a culture another one can exist. For example, within the American Culture there exist hundreds of different types of cultures: the teen culture, the sports culture, the drug culture, the business culture, the working class culture.

These cultures exist in many places and can change the language used by the individual when introduced to them. When a student goes to school, they are entering a different culture than they are at while at home and while in school they may interact with there friends which again is a totally different type of culture. Among these different cultures exists different ways of language use. At home you may speak one way to your parents and another to your siblings, at school you may talk similarly to your teachers and headmaster as you would to your parents but maybe with more reservation. In addition to those cultural differences, when talking to friends there may be an inside language that only your friends understand, like a handshake or greeting. From this it can be said that children and other new comers to a cultures society gain tacit knowledge of principles of social order and systems of belief through being introduced to and participation in language-mediated interaction of that specific culture.

Reid's "Once Upon a Time . . . When We Were Colored" brings the viewer back to the world of a black community in the rural South during the years 1946 to 1962, as hard-line segregation gradually fell to the civil rights movement. It is a depiction of the close bonds of family, friends and church that grew up to sustain such a culture, in a society where an American version of apartheid was the way of life most thought they had to accept.

The key word in the movie is "culture," and rarely has a film more movingly shown how people who work, live and pray together can find a common strength and self-respect through there culture. The movie depicts stories both happy, like the Sunday church socials, as well as the cruel pain of a young boy learning how to spell his first words “white”