Elinor Ochs (1987). Input: A Socio-Cultural Perspective
Ochs explains how language acquisition “is embedded in the process of acquiring
culture,” that is, “children’s linguistic competence is tied to their emerging knowledge
of social function, events, relations . . .” She attributes the difficulty toddlers have
learning their first language, and the problem older persons have learning a second
language, to the difficulty of learning the shared meanings of relational and situational
experiences that are unique to each culture. She defines culture as “a system of shared
ideas” and “a loose set of guidelines and premises . . . [that give] meaning to
experiences,” thus alluding to the challenge of understanding culture and culture as a
barrier to language competency. She focuses on cultural differences in how they
respond to unclear utterances, including toddlers’ unclear egocentric speech. She
draws an analogy: Piaget’s emphasis egocentrism is to Vygotsky’s emphasis on
social-constructivist sociocentrism, just as, the WMC’s adaptation to egocentric
speech is to Samoan pressure to communicate sociocentrically. The WMC gives in to
egocentric tendencies by filling in missing information, paraphrasing, and expanding;
Samoan caregivers ignore egocentric utterances and do not involve toddlers in much
communicative activity. Toddlers are nurtured but not catered to communicatively.
They are expected to take the perspective of others, which may or may not be
reasonable, and must assume the burden of making their utterances intelligible.
The difference between WMC and Samoan cultures in how they respond to
infants and toddlers raises questions about how these socialization practices influence
development. There are many studies showing that children’s achievement of
milestones in understanding intentionality, others’ desires and emotions, and others’
thoughts and beliefs, and their ability to feel what others’ feel and understand their
mental states is influenced by the mother-infant relationship and its quality in terms of
bi-directional affective communication, synchrony, shared attention, secure
attachment, social referencing, authoritative parenting, and inductive discipline. So
which of the two cultures promotes development best?
Question in Response to Ochs’ Chapter

Does the Samoan rejection of egocentric speech and pressure on
toddlers to take the perspective of others foster or accelerate theory
of mind and empathy?

By applying pressure so early, does the Samoan culture deprive
toddlers of the close relationship(s) needed to develop optimally?

Is nurturing, secure attachment, and authoritative parenting
undermined in Samoan culture by their not compensating for the
limited ability of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers to take the
perspective of others and communicate sociocentrically?

Could it be that the way each culture responds to toddlers’
egocentric utterances falls short of what would ideally foster
children’s development?

Does the WMC culture adapt to egocentric speech appropriately
early-on and thus not require more sociocentrism than is possible for
toddlers, but then continue adapting for too long?

Does the Samoan culture have sociocentric expectations that are
developmentally appropriate for older children ages three to five but
not developmentally appropriate for children ages six months to two
years?