Want and the language socialization of multiple competencies in middle school dance classes

A central topic in the study of pragmatics is how language contributes to the socialization of culturally shared values, skills, and practices. This paper employs a language socialization approach in order to investigate how the modal verb want is being used in two middle school dance classes as a tool for socializing students into becoming what their teacher describes as “better people” as well as “better dancers.” Data collection and analysis includes ethnographic observation and the video recording, transcription, and linguistic and pragmatic analysis of how participants use want within the context of pivotal sequences of classroom interaction. The findings of this paper support the theory, which has been developed in several fields but including especially cognitive psychology, that the use of mental state language in general, and the verb want in particular, plays an important role in making transparent the kinds of thought processes central to a number of socially valued competencies, including imitative, instructional and collaborative learning and the exercise of social, and thus also moral responsibility.