Sign language socialization and participant frameworks in three indigenous Mesoamerican communities.

This article presents a cross-cultural study of sign language socialization and participant frameworks in three indigenous Mesoamerican communities—Zinacantán and San Juan Quiahije in Mexico, and Nebaj in Guatemala. It examines how child signers are socialized to use visual and tactile communicative practices, either as active participants or observers, within mixed deaf-hearing and spoken-signed interactions. The study finds that child signers acquire appropriate visual engagement strategies, such as gaze management and proxemics, even when primarily positioned as observers rather than direct interlocutors. Language modality choice and recognition of child signers as participants are influenced by local child-rearing beliefs, language ecologies, signer age, hearing status, and the social configuration of interlocutors. The findings highlight that signed language socialization involves both explicit interaction and observational learning within multiparty conversational settings, expanding traditional models of language socialization to include visual and tactile modalities.