Cultural Variation in Mothers’ Language

Abstract

Observations on the speech of rural Spanish-speaking Guatemalan mothers to children aged 1½ to 3½ years indicate some differences from the speech described for American middle-class mothers. The Guatemalan mothers also differed from American middle-class mothers in their beliefs about child-language socialization and development and in the frequency of verbal interactions with their children. It is suggested that cultural variations in mothers’ speech styles and beliefs and the relative salience of different people in the child's language environment should be considered in the formation of theories of child-language socialization and acquisition.