Differences across cultures

It is easy to assume that every culture socializes children in the same way. Studies of other cultures, however, show that children are social­ized differently depending on the culture they are brought up in.

A study of 6- to 11-year-old children in six farming communities in the United States, Kenya, Okinawa, northern India, the Philippines, and Mexico is a good example of these studies. Beatrice and John Whiting (1975) found a big difference between the types of household chores that children were expected to do in these cultures. More importantly, they found that parental expectations about work around the house were an important part of children's socialization. Where children were expected to take care of other younger children and do chores that helped the whole household (as in the Kenyan and Mexican commu­nities studied), they quickly learned to be responsible and caring toward others. In communities like the one studied in the United States, where children were only expected to do chores such as clean­ing their rooms and picking up toys, they were less likely to develop these traits at an early age. Of course, not every family in a particular culture socializes their children in exactly the same way - and this would be true of expectations about household chores also. Neverthe­less, many cross-cultural differences in socialization have been identi­fied by researchers.

Other evidence of these differences in socialization practices comes from a study of how traditional Vietnamese and Chinese socialize their children. In these families, the needs of the group are seen as more important than the needs of the individual, and so chil­dren learn that their first responsibility is to their parents rather than to themselves. For example, many children work hard at school so that their parents will be proud of them.

Task 3. The text above contains some terms that are crucial for discussing the topic of socialization. These terms are scrambled below. Unscramble them and give their definitions.

Word	Definition
CIAIONSOLIZAT SOLIZECIA LIZCIAINGSO GENATS ONSCTISAN (SITPOIVE, IVEGATNE) HAVEBIOUR (SITPOIVE, IVEGATNE) DELMOING SORCS-RALTULUC FEREFIDCENS ERPE ORUGP

Task 4. These words from the text describe different kinds of behaviour: polite, neat, well-behaved, rebellious, resentful, respectful, responsible, caring, kind, rude, cheerful, aggressive, obedient, disobedient, selfish, cruel.

Work with a partner. Write the words in the chart that follows to show which kinds of behaviour are likely to lead to a positive sanction (a reward) and which to a negative sanction (a punishment). Add any other related adjectives you can think of.

Positive sanction	Negative sanction
polite,...	rebellious,...

Task 5. Paraphrase the underlined vocabulary units in the text in the written form. Make up 5 fresh-context sentences with the word combinations you like most.

Task 6. The paragraph below summarizes the text "How We Learn to Behave." Fill in the missing words by looking back at the text.

Socialization is the process of learning how to behave in the society we live in. The job of socialization is performed by several groups called________________. The family, the school, and the peer group are the most important socializing agents, and of these three, the _________ is the most important, espe­cially in the early years. Two important ways that families and other socializing agents teach children to behave are _________________ and ________________. Sanctions are the ______________ that follow a particular behaviour and influence whether or not the behaviour will be ____________. Sanctions can be positive (______________) or negative (punishments). Modeling is learning by ____________ the behaviour of others -especially parents - and copying that behaviour. Children are socialized differently depending on the _____________ they are brought up in.

Task 7. Now write your own summary of the text “How we learn to behave”.

Task 8. Discuss with a small group what you would do if you were the parent in each of the situations below. The information and vocabulary from the text can help you.

1) Your 5-year-old child hits another child without reason while playing. You have never seen him/her do this before.

2) Every night, your 4-year-old child refuses to go to bed.

3) Your 10-year-old child offers to help you clean up the house.

4) Your oldest child, a 16-year-old, has started smoking. You smoke, but do not want your children to smoke.

5) You want your 14-year-old to take care of your younger children when you are at work, but he/she complains, "It's not my job."

Task 9. Read the following letters to a magazine advice column and discuss with the class what you would advise the parent to do.

· Would you advise a positive sanction?

· Would you advise a negative sanction?

· Do you think some behaviour modeling might help, or do you have some other idea?

Letter 1

My 8-year-old son has never been in any trouble before, but just recently he has been getting into big trouble for swearing at school. I'm not sure what to do. My husband and I don't swear very much around the house, but of course, like many people, we do sometimes. My son is usually quite well-behaved, but he does not seem to take any notice of what I say about this. What should I do?

Letter 2

My 6-year-old daughter has been coming home with small toys that do not belong to her. When I ask her about them, she says that another child gave them to her. But it happens so much that I just cannot believe her. I feel I should punish her in some way, but I'm not sure if it would work and if it could even make the problem worse. What should I do?

Letter 3

My youngest child of four, a 3-year-old boy, has a terrible habit of throwing things at people who visit the house. Because people usually laugh at him when he does this, he thinks his behaviour is amusing and keeps doing it. Of course, people usually try to be polite and laugh, but eventually they get upset. It is very embarrassing and I really don't know what to do. Can you help me?

? WRITING

Task 10. Choose one letter in Task 10 and write a short letter of advice in reply.

LISTENING

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