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4.4. Language, cognition,
and culture - Coggle Diagram
4.4. Language, cognition,
and culture
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4.4.4. Language, social class, and cognition
Basil Bernstein (1961) concerned
- British children from working- class backgrounds were not progressing well at school.
- working- class children spoke English differently from middle- class children\
- (mistakenly) assumed – language the working- class children used in a formal interview with a middle- class adult - accurate representation of their sociolinguistic competence -> Restricted
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later rejected - developed a more socially sophisticated - took account of different patterns of socialization.
Early version had great appeal - placed the blame on the children and their language rather than on the schools’ failure to adequately identify their educational needs.
Bernstein (1961) - linguistic differences between classes in terms of his concept of codes
- (i) elaborated code: standard forms, complex sentences
-(ii) restricted code: short, grammatically simple sentences
Claim: Every speaker has access to the restricted code, but not all social classes have access to the elaborated code.
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Criticism:
- (i) falsely implies that the class system is maintained by code differences between people
- (ii) overlooks the importance of class conflict in linguistic differentiation
- (iii) The learning of the ‘elaborate code’ is portrayed as the ticket out of the working class; solidarity is being ignored.
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