class and education · letter to a pen-pal teacher: ok, now, here´s the problem. the ... you...
TRANSCRIPT
Class and Education
Karolina Patzwald
Jana Schröder
Jan-Michael Stiegelmeier
Ulrich Welck
Index
Relation of Class and Education
Markers of Class Education
Language Change and Class
Critique of Social Variationist Studies
Relation of Class and Education
Social class
wealth, income, education, type of occupation
Upper class
Upper middle class
Middle class
Lower middle class
Working class
Lower class
Educational sociolinguistics
Deals with relationships within classroom settings
Important: differences between language use in classrooms and at home
Also: cultural differences
Education
“ Education refers to the teaching and learning activities through which members of a society gain access to this information and to these skills.“
Initiation-Response-Evaluation
Mehan(1979):
Initiation by teacher
Response by student
Evaluation by teacher
Frank, 8-years-old
Member of Ute Indian Tribe
Doesn‘t move outside of the IRE-sequence
Dividing by nineTeacher: What is nine times nine?
Frank: Ninety.
Teacher: No, that is too big. We know that nine times nine is eighty-one. What is nine times nine?
Frank: Eighty-one.
Teacher: Eighty-one. You know that nine times nine in eighty-one. Can you get a nine out of here? (motions to the 90 on the board)
Frank: Yes.
Teacher: OK, if we take nine out of here, what do we have?
Frank: Eighty-one.
Teacher: What about eighty-three divided by nine?
Old Ironsides
Nancy: I went to Old Ironsides at the ocean.(…) We also spent our dollars and we went to another big shop.
Teacher: Mm. ´N what did you learn about Old Ironsides?
Nancy: (brief description of the furnishings and guides´costumes) I also went to a fancy restaurant.
Teacher: Haha. Very good.
Nancy: And I had a hamburger, french fries, lettuce and a –
Teacher: (interrupts) OK. All right what´s – Arthur has been waiting and then Paula, OK?
Roberto: working-class Hispanic family
first language: Spanish
learns ESL at school
Letter to a pen-pal
Teacher: OK, now, here´s the problem. The letter goes back to the pen-pal, right? If you answer the questions here – like you put `No dog´ or `yes´, she won‘t know the answer to this question because it‘s not on this letter. You need to answer her letter. Do you understand? OK. So what we need to do is we need to change these into sentences so she‘ll know the answers to these questions.
Teacher: Good. OK, and what do you put at the end of your sentence? `Do you have pets at home?´ And you wrote what?
Roberto: Yes, a (unclear).
Teacher: Yes.
Robert: A monkey.
Teacher: OK, why don´t you explain that to her.
Roberto: I said, `Yes a (unclear)´.
Teacher: So what sentence are you going to write?
Roberto: `Yes I do.´
Teacher: `I do what?´
Roberto: `I do have….´
Teacher: `Have…´ have what?
Roberto: `A dog.´
Teacher: OK, you can tell her that. `I have a dog in (unclear).´ What goes at the end? OK, now you said you have a dog, two cats, and then you put `no dog.´ Do you know why you put that?
Roberto: (unclear)
Teacher: All right, the important thing is that
you understand that when you´re writing bak
to your penpal you have to answer the
questions in your letter, right? ….OK, what I´d
like you to do now, then, is go to your final
copy.
Teacher talk
Primary speakers in class
Tight control over the conversations
Determine the topics for discussion
Regulate amount of time
Markers of class education
Basil Bernstein's code theory
restricted code
vs.
elaborated code
Basil Bernstein- the restricted code
associated with working class
marginalized groups
people with little access to a range of
opportunities within society
Basil Bernstein - the restricted code
short sentences
repetitive and predictable linkage between
sentences (and, then, so)
infrequent and undetailed use of adjectives and
adverbs
constantly seek confirmation (you see, you know)
Basil Bernstein - the elaborated code
middle-class
precise, highly creative and richly expressive
linguistic descriptions
wide range of syntactic and semantic
alternatives
The Elaborated Code_2
imaginative and unpredictable fashion
complex sentences and large vocabulary
drawing
ability to organize experience conceptually
Basil Bernstein middle-class
"Three boys are playing football and one
boy kicks the ball
and it goes through the window
the ball breaks the window
and the boys are looking at it
and a man comes out and shouts at them
because they've broken the window
so they run away
and then that lady looks out of her
window
and she tells the boys off."
(from Bernstein, 1971 p 203 [re-arranged])
working-class
"They're playing football
and he kicks it
and it goes through there
it breaks the window
and they're looking at it
and he comes out
and shouts at them
because they've broken it
so they run away
and then she looks out
and she tells them off"
William Labov's countermovement
Ignorant children
or
ignorant linguists?
Concept of “verbal deprivation“
“as if these children had no language at all“
(Breiter)
receive little verbal stimulation
culturally and therefore verbally deprived
cannot form concepts
cannot express logical thoughts
[12 seconds of silence](What would you say it looks like?)
[8 seconds of silence]A spaceship.(Hmmmmm.)
[13 seconds of silence]Like a je-et.
[12 seconds of silence]Like a plane.
[20 seconds of silence](What color is it?)
Orange. [2 seconds] An’ whi-ite. [2 seconds]An’ green.
[6 seconds of silence](An’ what could you use it for?)
[8 seconds of silence]A je-et.
[6 seconds of silence](If you had two of them, what would you do with them?)
[6 seconds of silence]Give one to some-body.
(Hmmm. Who do you think would like to have it?)[10 seconds of silence]
Cla-rence.(Mm. Where do you think we could get another one of these?)
At the store.(Oh-ka-ay!)
What is the situation that produces it?
defensive behaviour
asymmetrical situation → adult - child
boy wants to achieve the end of interview
capacity to defend himself in a hostile situation
What happens to you after you die? Do you know?
LARRY H: Yeah, I know. (What?) After they put you in the ground, your body
turns into--ah--bones, an' shit.
JL: What happens to your spirit?
LARRY: Your spirit--soon as you die, your spirit leaves you. (And where does the
spirit go?) Well, it all depends. (On what?) You know, like some people say if you
re good an' shit, your spirit goin' t'heaven...'n' if you bad, your spirit goin' to hell.
Well, bullshit! Your spirit goin' to hell anyway, good or bad.
JL: Why?
LARRY: Why? I'll tell you why. Cause. you see, doesn' nobody really know that
it's a God, y'know. 'cause, I mean I have seen black gods, pink gods, white gods,
all color gods. and don t nobody know it's really a God. An' when they be sayin'
if you good, you goin' t'heaven, thas bullshit. 'cause you ain't goin' to no heaven,
'cause it ain't no heaven for you to go to.
Provided arguments
1) Everyone has a different idea of what God is like.
(2) Therefore nobody really knows that God exists.
(3) If there is a heaven. it was made by God.
(4) If God doesn't exist, he couldn't have made heaven.
(5) Therefore heaven does not exist.
(6) You can't go somewhere that doesn't exist.
(not B) Therefore you can't go to heaven.
(C) Therefore you are going to hell.
CR: Do you know of anything that someone can do, to have someone who has passed on visit him in a dream?
CHAS M.: Well, I even heard my parents say that there is such a thing as something in dreams, some things like that, and sometimes dreams do come true. I have personally never had a dream come true. I've never dreamt that somebody was dying and they actually died (Mhm), or that I was going to have ten dollars the next day and somehow I got ten dollars in my pocket. (Mhm.) I don't particularly believe in that, I don't think it's true. I do feel, though, that there is such a thing as--ah--witchcraft. I do feel that in certain cultures there is such a thing as witchcraft, or some sort of science of witchcraft; I don't think that it's just a matter of believing hard enough that there is such a thing as witchcraft. I do believe that there is such a thing that a person can put himself in a state of mind (Mhm), or that--er--something could be given them to intoxicate them in a certain--to a certain frame of mind--that--that could actually be considered witchcraft.
Provided Arguments
(1) Some people say that dreams sometimes come true.
(2) I have never had a dream come true.
(3) Therefore I don't believe (1).
(4) But I believe in witchcraft.
--> extracted to 100 words
Sentences in which AAVE allows deletion of the verb “to be“
Noun phrase She – the first one started us off.
Predicative adjective He – fast in everything he do.
Locative You – out the tape.
Negative But everybody – not black.
Participle He just feel like he – getting
cripple up from arthritis.
Where SAE permits contraction , AAVE permits deletion
*He's as nice as he says he's
*How beautiful you're!
Are you going? *Yes I'm
He's as nice as he says he ---
How beautiful you --
Are you going? * Yes I -
Sentences in which AAVE disallows deletion of the verb “to be“
Where SAE disallows contraction, AAVE disallows deletion
→ governed by same logic
Conclusion
refutes notion of language deprivation among
minorities
AAVE own dialect with proper grammatical rules
no difference in logic or lack of logic)
not better or worse than Standard English
Language Change and Class
Linguistic change
Premise: Language as social behavior correlates with social features (such as class)
Three stages:
Origin of a change
Propagation of the change
Completion of the change
Social forces: awareness of language behavior
Pressure from abovePressure from below the level of coscious awareness
Linguistic change_2
Crucial factor: socioeconmic status
Shape of linguistic behavior changes as the social position changes
Linguistic structures reflect social processes
<th> index
<th> indexVertical axis: percentage of stigmatized
realizations of <th>
stops [t, d] and affricates [t ], [d ]ʃ ʒ
Horizontal axis: informal to formal speech
A) Casual speech, B) Careful speech
C) Reading style, D) Word lists
Classes:
0-1: Lower class
2-4: Working class
5-6:, 7-8: Lower middle class
9: upper middle class
Dense summary
Each value for a given class, in a given style, is lower than the value for the next most informal style, and higher than the next most formal style
The fricative form of <th> is the prestige form in NYC, stops and affricates are stigmatized
All classes use more fricatives in more formal style
→ Regular structure
Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic
Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic_2
R-pronunciation is the prestige form in NYC
In casual speech: only upper middle class (about 20%); all other groups virtually no [r]
In more formal styles, the amount of r-pronunciaton rises rapidly for all groups
Minimal pairs (most formal): Lower-middle class even surpasses upper middle class
Crossover pattern
Hypercorrect behaviour of the lower middle class
Hypercorrection
Crossover pattern
The use of more ”correct” (=prestige) forms in formal speech than a higher status group
True for other variables than [r]
(eh) → height of the vowel in bad, ask
(dh) → this, that, those
Suffix -ing
→ not a deviation but rather a recurrent aspect of a regular structure
Lower Middle Class
Linguistic insecurity
Sensitivity towards social pressures
Tendency to adopt prestige forms
Conscious striving for correctness
Strongly negative attitude towards their native speech patterns
Lower Middle Class_2
Wide range of stylistic variation
Greatest tendency towards the introduction of rhoticity
In the most formal level even goes far beyond upper-middle class
Subjective reaction test
Most negative reaction to stigmatized forms
More negative than the upper middle class
Upper Classes
Often absent in sociolinguistic surveys
2 reasons● Smallness of the group● Inaccessibility to outsiders
Not at all insecure about their linguistic behaviour
Upper Classes_2
Style rather than dialect:
Phonologically not much difference to middle class
Prosodic and lexical differences
Laryngealized voice quality
Frequent use of emphatic accent patterns and intensifying modifiers
● Extremely, outstanding● Expresses an expectation of agreement from the
listener
Further factors to be considered
● Gender● Ethnicity● Age● Situation● ...
Critique of social variationist studies
Roland Wardhaugh
“[Studying social variation] was largely in order to widen the limits and repair the flaws that were
perceived to exist in [studies of regional variation].”
“If we are to gain a sound understanding of [..] social variation, we should look at least briefly at
previous work in regional dialectology.”
Social and Regional Variation
➔Problem: Research on social variation largely unrelated to previous research in regional studies.
➔The bigger picture is lost and thus hinders a larger understanding of dialectology.
Roland Wardhaugh
“The Atlas studies were intended partly to find out how speech related to class, but speech
itself was used as one of the criteria for assigning membership.”
➔Problem: Researchers tasked with choosing participants. Bias toward elderly people with little formal education.
➔Focus on rural areas, because of homogeneity➔Results do not represent reality.
Questionable Methodology
●Determining whether someone belongs to a certain social class is not universally verifiable unlike the qualities gender or age.
●Classifications differ from study to study because of different criteria.
Sixth Graders' Understanding of Class
●Top level: Mafia, Supreme Court, President, Government●
●Second level: Army, Military, F.B.I.●
●Third level: Famous People, Pope, CEOs (Business Owners), Celebrities, Heroes (Fire Fighters, Doctors, Military)
●
●Fourth level: CTO (Chief Technology Officer), Entertainment Workers, Fire Fighters, Doctors, Bankers
●
●Fifth level: SSA (Social Security Association), Contractors●
●
●
●Sixth level: Teachers●
●Seventh level: Illegal Immigrants, Homeless
Criteria Issue
To conquer the problem of having so many qualifications for a class, a mixture of those qualities are chosen and a scale for each one measures these traits. Then an overall evaluation takes place. But still, this is bound to a region.
Further Issues
Drawbacks to class-related studies:
●Hard to classify indivividuals using what is meant to be objective criteria designed for masses.●No differentiation of ethnicities, different generations of immigrants, places etc.
But:
●If one were to make all these differentiations, no general statement could be made as easily.
➔In conclusion, we can only make out a stereotype, which might not be reflected by a single individual who has all the traits of that stereotype
Further Issues
On the other hand: Problems arise from the modern mentality of egalitarianism. People especially in bigger cities tend to not like the notion of a social class system and try to not
be associated with only one group.➔People of all backgrounds come to be more alike each other.
Attempted Solution
Lesley Milroy took a different approach:Network relationships.
➔Problem: No two networks are alike. No generalization possible.
Circularity
Circularity
Circularity
Circularity
Circularity
Circularity
Again: A problem arises in the form of circularity.
”His [Trudgill's] study is an attempt to relate linguistic behaviour to social class, but he uses
linguistic behaviour to assign membership in social class.”
Correlation (Susan Gal)“Whatever the social measures, correlations in
themselves reveal little about the processes that bring about, maintain, or change these
correlations.”
Problem: Only looking at correlation can lead to false conclusions.
Wardhaugh:”[...]this has not stopped them from drawing very
strong conclusions, which seem 'obvious' and 'interesting' to them”
Correlation
➔Solution: Long-term observation of individuals in order to find out about why class-dependent speech persists
References
Labov, W. Sociolinguistic Patterns. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2000
Labov, W. Principles of Linguistic Change: Social factors. Wiley-Blackwell 2001
Mesthrie, R. Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press 2000
Williams, G. Sociolinguistics. A Sociological Critique. T J Press, Padstow, Cornwall 1992
Wardhaugh, Ronald. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. New York, Wiley-Blackwell 1992 (Second Edition)