| This study examines the folk theories and communicative practices associated with caregiving and childhood language socialization in a small community in central Taiwan. Under the assumption that cultural patterns and meaning systems are dynamically constructed, they are revealed through the full array of participants who are involved in the process of language socialization. Caregivers of both genders and both parental and grandparental generations participated in this study, which was ethnographic in approach. The analysis was based on field work and open-ended interviews conducted in two local languages, and in a variety of home settings. Attention was also paid to investigating Taiwan's rapidly changing social and historical forces, which participants claim impact microlevel practices and beliefs.;Caregivers situate their present practices and meaning systems indexically, pointing to perceived changes from past generations and across spatial boundaries. Dramatic changes in the nature of caregiving and parent-child interaction are linked to changes in the status of women, economic conditions, and political liberalization. At the same time, some observed daily communicative patterns are perceived to continue and maintain relevance from former generations to present and future ones. Taiwan's complex language situation is also perceived to play an important role in language socialization. Changes in school-based and official language policies, from Japanese, to Mandarin-only, to today's more liberal climate, set against the wishes of the majority ethnic group to maintain its own Taiwanese language, is perceived to adversely impact parent-child and grandparent-grandchild daily interaction.;This study challenges the commonly espoused view that cultural practices and meaning systems, especially in a Chinese context, change slowly. It provides a warrant for systematically investigating fathers' and grandparents' meaning systems in a study of caregiving and language socialization. It also raises questions regarding the long-term impact of rigid school-based language policies that purposefully cut off and devalue home-based languages. |
