Educational Achievement & Linguistic Differences

Who is impacted by linguistic differences?

• Differences between social classes

• Minority ethnic groups

  • Over 1 million students in the UK were not native speakers in 2013

  • Increase in non-native speakers after an increase in EU membership

How does language differ between social classes?

Bernstein (1971)- Two distinct language codes- elaborated and restricted

Elaborated Code:

• Universal meanings

• Grammatically complex, broad vocabulary

• Formal context

• Abstract

• Middle class

Restricted Code:

• Particularistic meanings

• Grammatically simple, narrow selection of words

• Simple, informal language

• Context-bound

• Working class

How does this impact on education?

• Teachers speak in elaborated code

• Textbooks and resources written in elaborated code

• External examinations are written in elaborated code

Evaluations of Berstein:

• Class is more complex than middle and working-class

• Students learn the elaborated code throughout their schooling

• Restricted code and elaborated code can be interchangeable in social situations

• Is the restricted code inferior?

Ethnicity and linguistic differences:

• The intersection of class and ethnicity

• Bereiter and Engelmann (1966) state that some minority ethnic groups lack skills in English as not practised at home

• The colloquial language of some ethnic minority subculture groups sets them out as different to other students

Evaluations:

• Swann Report (1985) non-native speakers acquire skills in a second language by the time they leave school

• Language is an attribute of habitus- if this clashes with the habitus of school could lead to negative perceptions by teachers

• Educational performance of Chinese and Indian students