Jenny Cook-Gumperz – författare

Literacy - the ability to produce and interpret written text - has long been viewed as the basis of all school achievement; a measure of success that defines both an 'educated' person, and an educable one. In this volume, a team of leading experts raise questions central to the acquisition of literacy. Why do children with similar classroom experiences show different levels of educational achievement? And why do these differences in literacy, and ultimately employability, persist? By looking critically at the western view of a 'literate' person, the authors present a perspective on literary acquisition, viewing it as a socially constructed skill, whereby children must acquire discourse strategies that are socially 'approved'. This extensively-revised second edition contains an updated introduction and bibliography. This volume will continue to have far-reaching implications for educational theory and practice.

Literacy - the ability to produce and interpret written text - has long been viewed as the basis of all school achievement; a measure of success that defines both an 'educated' person, and an educable one. In this volume, a team of leading experts raise questions central to the acquisition of literacy. Why do children with similar classroom experiences show different levels of educational achievement? And why do these differences in literacy, and ultimately employability, persist? By looking critically at the western view of a 'literate' person, the authors present a perspective on literary acquisition, viewing it as a socially constructed skill, whereby children must acquire discourse strategies that are socially 'approved'. This extensively-revised second edition contains an updated introduction and bibliography. This volume will continue to have far-reaching implications for educational theory and practice.

Basil Bernstein’s theory of social control was the foundation for this pioneer study of the language mothers use to socialize their children, and how it affects their understanding of social values and social attitudes as they grow older.Originally published in 1973, Dr Cook-Gumperz’s research was particularly important in that it made use of analytical methods which could measure numerically the manifestations of the three kinds of control – imperative, positional, personal – that Bernstein distinguished. Using the coding grid developed by Professor Bernstein and herself, Jenny Cook-Gumperz demonstrates clearly the relations between maternal class, maternal approach to discipline and the child’s progress. By showing that the effects of early upbringing on the educational potential of children were measurable, this significant work in the comparatively new field of sociolinguistics would form a basis for the methodological approach to further practical investigations of a similar nature at the time. Today it can be read in its historical context.