Language socialization in a Northern Thai bilingual community

This dissertation investigates the language socialization of children in a Northern Thai bilingual community into the use of two codes---Kam Muang, the community vernacular, and Standard Thai, the official national language of Thailand. Both language varieties have complex systems of honorifics and social registers that children must learn to use appropriately in a variety of settings. This dissertation investigates how kindergarten children are socialized into social and culturally appropriate uses of speech styles in these two languages in the educational settings of the family household, children's play groups, and the public school. Through an ethnographic, discourse-analytic study of four 5-year-old Muang children and their 7- to 9-year-old siblings, the dissertation examines how children are socialized through language into the social organization of hierarchy in their community, including the practices of respect in two languages, how they are socialized into the genres and linguistic practices of intimacy, and the impact of this process on a process of language shift in their community.;The widespread use of new language mixing practices, lamented by Muang adults, is considered to be characteristic of younger Muang speakers, especially those in the city. This dissertation shows that children's socialization into the social and linguistic practices of their community is organized by community ideologies of respect, accommodation, and intimacy. This process of socialization, in turn, socializes children into multiple practices of language hybridity that represent a shift in the way that language is being used by community members. In a variety of settings with a wide range of community members, children are active participants in the social world around them, engaging in practices that both reflect and transform the values, expectations, and orientations of their community. We found that children's socialization is accomplished through their exposure to language-mixed genres and varieties, through competing modes of caregiving and teaching that highlight certain aspects of language behavior over others, and through participation in the routine and everyday language practices of their community.