Primary Socialization, Language and Education – serie

Originally published in 1970, Social Class, Language and Communication explores the different effects of parental social class, the ability and sex of the child and a measure of the mother’s reported communication to her child, upon aspects of five-year-old children’s speech. The study shows the relationship between a measure of linguistic flexibility in children and their family’s social class position and includes the construction and application of an index of maternal communication and control. Today it can be read in its historical context.

In the 1970s, Basil Bernstein’s work on children’s sociolinguistic codes and his formulation of the contexts in which they are transmitted were the most influential in the field. However, as Diana Adlam points out, neither code nor context as Bernstein saw them can be properly grasped until they are understood in interaction. Originally published in 1977, this collection of papers contains both theoretical and empirical investigations of Bernstein’s ideas, and seeks to make that necessary connection.The study as a whole is concerned primarily with Basil Bernstein’s ideas on the relationship of different familial transmission systems to the way in which children learn to use language. The theoretical chapter stresses Bernstein’s present emphasis on the semantic orientations which different children may be acquiring, and discusses these ideas in relation to work being done elsewhere at the time by other sociolinguistics, particularly in the United States. The empirical chapters provide analyses of how children of different social backgrounds differ in their approach to language use and also show the structural relationship of talk across a variety of specific contexts. Today it can be read against its historical backdrop.

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.

Originally published in 1970, Talk Reform describes the development of an exploratory language enrichment programme devised by the authors and carried out by teachers in a group of primary schools in a working-class area of London.Inspired by Bernstein’s theory of different language codes and their relation to educational underachievement, the authors devised a series of situations in the classroom as preconditions for extending language use. Their aim was to reorient the reader to the social functions of language, so that teachers who understood the ideas behind this programme would be able to carry out the activities described as well as those they may have thought up for themselves. The kinds of problems encountered when trying to judge the value of intervention and change in the classroom are discussed and illustrated, from the authors’ own research. The authors put forward the view that the social and linguistic skills that could be acquired in the way outlined in their book were crucial to the advancement of the working-class child in the social system. Today it can be read in its historical context.

In the early 1970s, the problem of arousing and maintaining the curiosity of children had been a recurrent theme in reports concerned with the development of new school curricula. However, before these ideas could be translated into soundly based practical measures, an increased understanding of what is involved in the activities of questioning and answering was needed.Originally published in 1972, the research reported in these two volumes presents a theoretical framework for describing linguistic features of a range of verbally expressed answers and their associated questions. Basil Bernstein’s theory is used to generate a number of predictions about the variety and quality of answers that mothers and children are likely to offer to ‘wh’ questions. The usefulness of the scheme is tested against the answering behaviour of members of different social classes, and, in the main, Bernstein’s predictions are supported. The validity of the categories in the classificatory scheme is explored more fully in later chapters by means of a correlational analysis of the answers of seven-year-old children.Volumes sold separately.

In the early 1970s, the problem of arousing and maintaining the curiosity of children had been a recurrent theme in reports concerned with the development of new school curricula. However, before these ideas could be translated into soundly based practical measures, an increased understanding of what is involved in the activities of questioning and answering was needed.Originally published in 1972, the research reported in these two volumes presents a theoretical framework for describing linguistic features of a range of verbally expressed answers and their associated questions. Basil Bernstein’s theory is used to generate a number of predictions about the variety and quality of answers that mothers and children are likely to offer to ‘wh’ questions. The usefulness of the scheme is tested against the answering behaviour of members of different social classes, and, in the main, Bernstein’s predictions are supported. The validity of the categories in the classificatory scheme is explored more fully in later chapters by means of a correlational analysis of the answers of seven-year-old children.Volumes sold separately.

Originally published in 1974, Selection and Control: Teachers' Ratings of Children in the Infant School consists of an analysis of teachers’ ratings of children in a middle-class and in a working-class area at the end of their first year and the end of second year of life in the infant school. Presented in two parts, Part One is highly technical as it sets out in some detail the logic of the statistical description. Part Two gives one interpretation of the findings as these might throw light upon differences in the patterns of the teachers’ judgments in the middle-class and working-class area. The results of the maternal interview given in the Appendix show very clearly major class differences in the reported preparation of the child for the current educational experience of the infant school. Today it can be read in its historical context.