The previous chapters have discussed how the host family members and the learners construct their social identities through the use of the masu form and how this practice implicitly socializes the learners into appropriate uses of the masu form. In contrast, this chapter discusses explicit language socialization to use polite language including the masu form, which is typically used in contexts outside the host family. Explicit language socialization is ‘the most salient and most widely described’ (Ochs, 1990: 290) form of language socialization. It is an explicit way to teach novices appropriate language behavior in society. Modeling is a type of explicit language socialization practice in which a member of a speech community presents a model of a language expression for a novice and prompts him or her to repeat it. In the context of first language socialization, modeling by caregivers for young children is observed in a wide range of cultures. Modeling has been documented in different social groups in the USA including the white working class (Miller, 1986), black working class (Heath, 1986), black and white middle class (Snow et al., 1990), and Mexican Americans (Eisenberg, 1986). It is also observed in southern Africa (Demuth, 1986), Papua New Guinea (Schieffelin, 1990) and Solomon Islands (Watson-Gegeo & Gegeo, 1986). Japanese mothers also actively take every opportunity to teach children polite expressions by modeling (Burdelski, 2006; Clancy, 1986; Nakamura, 1996). As discussed in Chapter 4, in the context of interactions between the JFL learner and host family, the modeling of polite expressions sometimes occurs when the host family members speak using the voices of other people (i.e. reported speech). This is a context where the host family members often shift to the masu form. In many cases, as polite expressions in Japanese often include a combination of the masu form and referent honorifics (i.e.