Sociolinguistics

&
Education

Jonathan Smart
Kathleen Byrne
What is Educational Sociolinguistics?

Educational sociolinguistics is the subfield of

sociolinguistics dealing with relationships
between language and education.
Research examines:
• Relationships within classrooms
• Informal education
• Community- centered instruction
• Media/Long-distance education
In every society there is information that members
need to know, and skills they need to acquire in
order to meet the responsibilities and obligations
of citizenship.
TRIBAL SOCIETIES STATE SOCIETIES
• Supervised by elders • Assigned to a local
• Ceremonies mark institution
entrance into adulthood • Knowledge may not be
• Imitation of skilled consistent with what is
artisans for continuation learned in the home or
of arts & crafts community
• Encouragement of • Home/school language &
community centered cultural differences are
communication one source of educational
problems
 Classroom Language

• Language is heavily regulated

o Teacher talk dominates in the classroom
o Teacher determines the topic and each
student’s right to speak on that topic
o Students must maintain the teacher’s
language expectations, otherwise their right
to speak is terminated
‘Old Ironsides’ (Dorr-Bremme 1984)
 Classroom Language

• Conflicting Definitions of Purpose:

o Oral communication o Written communication

differences differences
 More context Less context dependent
dependent Lots of repetition and
Less repetition and redundancy
redundancy
More fragmented
answers

 Letter to a pen-pal (Soloman 1995)

 Structure & Culture in Classroom
Conversations
• Typically question-asking & answering
• Mehan’s IRE structured sequence
– Initiation usually by the teacher in the form of
a request for information
– Response from one of the students
– Evaluation of the response by the teacher
followed by a request for more information or
a new IRE sequence
 Disadvantage & Classroom
Language
• Differences between classroom language
and home/community language and
cultural differences create problems in the
classroom.
– Ute cultural language expectations
– Class/Race expectations
• Activity
 The Ways with Words
Experiment
• Heath (1983) in SC compared home language of
m-class whites, w-class blacks, and w- class
whites.
• M-class whites read with children and ask
questions
• W-class whites read to their children (fewer
questions)
• W-class blacks no reading or one-on-one
exchanges, but encourage autonomous thought.
 Basil Bernstein’s Research
• Students from different social and economic
backgrounds respond differently to classroom
experiences

• Speakers learn the language that is relevant to

their social status thereby learning the
requirements and restrictions that regulate
behavior within that social position. These he
termed ‘codes’
 Elaborated Codes
Elaborate Codes Examples of Use
• Associated with the • Explicit
middle- class • Expressive
• Access to a wide range of • Ability to conceptually
syntactic and semantic organize experiences
alternatives • Favors complex sentences
• Encouraged to use these • Employs a large vocabulary
options in imaginative and by using all parts of speech
unpredictable ways
• As a result they have a
precise, highly creative, &
richly expressive speech
descriptions
 Restricted Codes
Restricted Codes Examples of Use
• Associated with the • Uses minimal linguistic
working- class & other resources:
marginalized groups – Sentences are usually short
• Access to a limited range – Links between sentences
of linguistic options are repetitive and
predictable (and then, so,
• As a result they have a next)
limited range of – Infrequent & un-detailed
opportunities within use of adjectives & adverbs
society • Often elicit constant
confirmation for their
statements
– You know
 Results of Bernstein’s Work

• ‘Deficit Hypothesis’
– Poor performance of minority and working-
class students due to a language deficit or
‘verbal deprivation’
– Equivalent to not having a language
– Schools attempted to ‘teach language’
Viewed as being racially motivated
Stereotypically assumed the varieties of English
used by minority were inferior
 Labov’s Research

• Revealed the logic behind the non-

standard AAVE use of the verb: to be
– AAVE sentences that allow the deletion of the
verb be correspond to SAE sentences that use
the contracted form of the verb be
• She --- the first one & She’s the first one
– AAVE sentences that do not allow the deletion
of the verb be, are equivalent to SAE
sentences where contractions are not allowed
• *Who’s it? & Who --- it?
 Persistent Problems
• Trudgill • Bourdieu
– Problem lies with – Argues that the
school expectations problem is not in the
– School system should stratified codes that
change in order to be promote disadvantage
more flexible to adapt – Schools are used for
to the needs of the ‘social reproduction’,
students meaning they are used
to maintain class
structure to restrict
student’s future
opportunities for
advancement
 Continued Effects of
Classroom Language

The power, regulation, and control of

classroom language is shown through
teacher-student communication and is
central to the students’ success or failure
 Dialect & Language Choice
In the Classroom
• Which should be language of instruction?
• Easy in monolingual countries (except for
classical languages)
• Questions of choosing language of
instruction is linked to “possibilities of
social and educational change” (Mesthrie
p. 368).
UNESCO: Vernacular in Education

• Committee 1951-1953 published report

(see Mesthrie 369-370), reconsidering the
validity of ‘vernaculars.’
• Critics objected to impracticality of many
of the committee’s suggestions.
• Balance capability of extant language to
deal with education with advantages of
using ‘mother tongue’
Very Smooth Transition
 Language attitudes, motivation,
and standards
• McGroarty (1996) “Language is an
intimate part of social identity”
• Teachers must balance teaching
responsibility w/ respect for language that
students bring to class.
• In examining motivation, etc, hard to
determine what are results vs. causes
Students are affected by:
(discussion)

1. Effective strategies for learning

2. Attitudes/examples of peers, teachers,
parents towards language study
3. Social/Institutional language policies as
reflected in classroom
4. Status of the language in society
5. Personal attitudes & motivations of
students themselves and teachers.
Definitions

• Attitude: “involves beliefs, emotional

reactions, and behavioral tendencies
related to the object of the attitude” (p 5).
• Motivation: “combination of desire and
effort made to achieve a goal” (p 5)
Measuring the abstract

• Gardner & Lambert (1959, 1972) gave

self-report questionnaires about the
language, the language speakers, etc.
• Then subjects were asked to rate
speakers’ samples based on unrelated
qualities, judging between language
varieties (but actually same speakers).
Orientation Index

• Index of motivation: initial distinction, still

widely used in psychology:
• Intrinsic motivation: based within the
individual
• Extrinsic motivation: individual’s
perception of external rewards for action
Motivation constructs
• Orientations of motivation:
• Integrative: the desire to be like and interact
with speakers of the target language.
• Instrumental: desire to learn language to
achieve a goal such as academic/occupational
success (p 7)
• Later Research: Orientation is indirect i/o direct
influence on achievement (p 8)
New Research (Baker, 1992)

• Indicators of attitude: gender, age,

language background, type of school
attended, local youth culture, etc.
• These factors shape attitudes, which are
also influenced by language ability.
Problems with Research

• Question of causality
• Operational definitions (of motivation) are
too narrow to apply.
• “Classroom is treated generically” (p 9).
Recent Methods
• Newer studies correlate questionnaires
with self-reported risk taking.
• Newer research has made an effort to
integrate broader (beyond the L2
classroom) personality factors (e.g. using
Meyers-Brigg type indicators).
• Tried to incorporate general educational,
industrial-occupational, and social learning
theory.
Summary Relationship

Language learning depends on the

interaction between 3 broad factors:
1. The Person and relevant indicators
2. The Nature of Instruction Received
3. The Broader Language Learning Context

Enter DVD
Accommodation Theory

• (Giles et al, 1979, 1991)

• Convergent: “factors related to feeling of
solidarity” wherein a speaker is reinforced
to use increase prestige/standard variants
• Divergent: using marked features to
“emphasize a distinctive social identity” (p
12)
Attitudes & Education

• Attitude no longer studied as single

determinative factor in learning.
• Linked to other factors: perceived
competence, personal & academic self-
esteem, beliefs about community of target
language.
 Student & Parent Attitudes
• Attitudes are shaped by personal experiences
and their specific learning context
• ESL students will not all have the same attitude
towards learning a new language; however,
parents typically want their child to be bilingual
• Students using a non-standard English dialect
comprehend SAE after 4-5 years of formal
education
• Problems arise when SAE speaking teachers
cannot understand students using non-standard
dialects
Student & Parent Attitudes
• Controversy is typical when the community
language is different than the school language
• When marginalization or oppression is a
historical aspect of the community being bi-
dialectic is seen as positive/necessary
• Distinction between learning community dialect
at home and school/standard dialect is also
positive
• Some aspects of community dialect integrated in
school language is helpful
• Prohibition of community language is unjustified
 Language Attitude Studies

• Acquiring a second language does not

improve social attitudes towards that
culture
• Emotional factors are involved in
students’ intrinsic motivation
• Students may become discouraged due to
the length of the acquisition process
Choices of Norms & Standards
• Descriptive Norms- what speakers use
most often
• Prescriptive Norms- rules applied to
language use in all settings
• Language Standardization- process over
time involves selecting a norm, elaboration
for different uses, restriction of diversity, &
codification in grammar or dictionaries
Standards In Schools
• Norms are established by the dominant
culture group
• Enforced in schools through standardized
language use
• Historically teachers promote ‘correct
language’ equivalent to standardized
English
• Currently history, geography, & political
and commercial relationships are
influencing accepted norms
Language Policies

• Language policies & instruction shape

attitudes towards language
• Language policies shape political attitudes
due to power struggles between dominant
and minority groups
Educational Implications
• Find ways to motivate speakers at the individual,
classroom, and school wide level
• Promote the relevance of language instruction
and the real world
• Expand opportunities for diverse language forms
• As conflict and disagreements over language
continues teachers need to provide creative and
effective changes