Final Project
For my project, I chose to study how poverty affects language acquisition. I had originally planned to write a paper, but instead decided to design a syllabus as if I were teaching a college course. After considering the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, a syllabus seemed to better accommodate the scope of the topic without sacrificing depth (I had actually written a couple of pages of my paper before deciding that I wasn’t doing justice to the complexity of the topic by reducing it to some ten or twenty odd pages). See below (for lack of more advanced technological skills, I've simply copied it).
There were several main themes that I teased out of all the research I did. First, there is the link between poverty and poor health and consequently challenges to cognitive and thus academic development. The lack of quality prenatal healthcare and nutrition for poor mothers leads to a higher occurrence of premature births and low birth weights, which creates a higher risk for respiratory, neurological, and cognitive problems, which all translate to challenges to the child’s intellectual growth. Furthermore, because many children born in poverty do not have access to the social, educational, and material resources that help to mitigate the harmful long term consequences of health problems in infancy, issues with which the middle class might be equipped to combat instead develop into life long difficulties. Additionally, there are higher levels of lead in the blood of children living in poverty because they are often forced to live in older houses with greater amounts of lead.
Furthermore, parents raising their children in poverty are often employed (if they are employed at all) in jobs that do not require them to address a variety of mentally stimulating problem solving tasks, whereas parents in the middle class are often offered these opportunities. It has been shown that parents simulate the types of environments that they experience in the workplace in their homes. Thus, middle class parents tend to offer their children the advantage of greater mental stimulation because it is what they themselves experience at work.
Basil Bernstein put forth the groundbreaking (although admittedly controversial) verbal deprivation hypothesis. He contended that the middle class tend to use more instruction, less physical intrusion, less negative feedback, a wider vocabulary, longer utterances, more specific diction/less vague pronouns, and more explanation/explicit qualification (and thus more subordinate clauses). This type of language he termed “elaborated code.” In this code, there is “universalistic meaning,” meaning that it is verbally explicit because the speaker does not assume that his audience shares his understanding of the meaning. In contrast, the lower classes often use “restricted code,” which has “particularistic meaning” because it is verbally implicit. This code is further marked by the repeated use of a limited number of conjunctions as well as short commands.
Although these two codes are fundamentally different, Bernstein was clear in his insistence that while there is a difference between the codes, neither is inherently deficient. However, because the way that the classroom is structured demands elaborated code, it puts poor students at a disadvantage. Middle class students, from birth, are socialized in a “formally articulated structure” because they experience space, time, and social relations in an explicitly regulated context that is mindful of a distant future. This idea of a linear progression from beginning, middle, to end is reflected in the language, while this pattern is absent from the discourse of students raised in poverty. Further, in the middle class language mediates between the expression and social recognition of feeling, thus allowing for language to mediate the relationship to authority. Middle class students thus come to school prepared to engage in exchanges of elaborated code with educators who assume positions of authority.
As can be expected, poor students often experience a discontinuity between home and school structures. As a result, especially when very young, they appear subdued, passive, and dependent. It has been shown that nursery school staff use “lower level” language when addressing these students because they perceive their passive behavior as incompetence. Educators, from the time that children attend nursery school, thus pave the way for a self-fulfilling prophecy that perpetuates the cycle of underachievement.
The most important thing that I learned from conducting my research was the danger of “individualizing failure.” When teachers fail to recognize (never mind account for) the structural forces that affect students’ language competency, they often fall into the trap of “legitimizing inequality.” If Mississippi (and this nation) is to overcome the challenges it faces, we must recognize inequality as an illegitimate, socially constructed phenomenon for which society must take responsibility.
Syllabus:
Requirements: Two papers (5-7 pages—each worth 20% of your grade) in addition to a longer final paper (15-20 pages—40% of your grade) that will require you to conduct fieldwork (at least six hours of observation in a local pre-k program—5% of your grade) and present your findings by constructing and teaching a 15 minute lesson at your fieldwork placement. Frequent short writing assignments (5%). Class participation (10%). See paper assignments and details regarding fieldwork attached. I will accept revisions of the first two papers. I. Introduction (week 1) Class 1: What is sociology? Assignments (always due at the start of class, excepting Blackboard posts, which are due by 10:00 PM the night before class)— Class 2: What is language? What does this mean in a sociological context? Assignments— II. Poverty, Health, Cognition, and the Implications for Language Acquisition (week 2) Class 3: How does poverty affect health conditions? Assignments— Class 4: How does poor health present an obstacle to language acquisition? Assignments— III. Code Theory of Language Part 1: Introduction (week 3) Class 5: Stimulation in the Home/Introduction to Code Theory Assignments— Class 6: Introduction to Code Theory Continued… Assignments— Part 2: Coming to Understand Bernstein (weeks 4-6) Class 7: Code Theory Assignments— Class 8: Code Theory Assignments— Class 9: Difference vs. Deficit Assignments— Class 10: Criticism of Bernstein Assignments— Class 11: Wrapping up Code Theory Assignments— · Payne, Ruby K. A Framework for Understanding Poverty (1-35). Highlands, TX: aha! Process, 2005. · Bernstein discusses ten major characteristics of restricted code or “public” language (see p 42-43 of Class, Codes, and Control). Generate a one sentence example of each characteristic to be posted on Blackboard. Class 12: Going beyond Bernstein Assignments— Part 3: Socialization (week 7) Class 13: How the Structure of Society Shapes Patterns of Thinking and Discourse Assignments— Class 14: Assignments— Part 4: Conferences, Part 1 (week 8) Class 15, 16: Assignments— Part 5: Implications (week 9-10) Class 17: How Schools Perpetuate the Problem Assignments— Class 18: Code in the “Real World” Assignments— Class 19: Speaker Series Part 1: Linguistics Professor Assignments— Class 20: Speaker Series Part 2: Early Childhood Education Professor IV. Conclusions (weeks 11-12) Part 1: Reflection (week 11) Class 21: Reflecting upon the Course Assignments— Part 2: Conferences, Part 2 (weeks 11-12) Classes 22, 23, 24: Assignments— V. Presentations (weeks 13-14) Classes 25, 26, 27, 28 will be spent in the schools either teaching your lesson or observing your classmates teaching their lessons. Attendance at each session is mandatory, regardless of whether or not you are teaching. Failure to attend will affect your final grade. Field Contract: It is the responsibility of the student to seek and ensure placement at a local pre-k by the fourth class, as indicated on the syllabus. It is expected that the student will arrive on time, in compliance with the dress code of the institution he or she is visiting, and will conduct him or herself respectfully during each visit. The student must also comply with any specific regulations that the institution may have in place (i.e. CORI checks, etc.). The student is expected to visit the same institution for the duration of two hours on three separate occasions. Fieldwork should be completed by the 13th class, as indicated on the syllabus. I agree to these terms and conditions. I understand that failure to comply with this contract can result in a failing grade for this class: Student Signature:____________________________________Date:________________ Name of Placement: Advisor at Placement: Day 1 Date: Time in: Time out: Advisor’s Signature:_______________________________________________________ Day 2 Date: Time in: Time out: Advisor’s Signature:_______________________________________________________ Day 3 Date: Time in: Time out: Advisor’s Signature:_______________________________________________________ Paper # 1: Due at the start of the 6th class. Last day to hand in a revised paper is at the start of the 10th class. What disadvantages does the poor child face in his linguistic development? Begin with the idea of poverty and what obstacles this places before a child. Then draw connections between these obstacles and the practical implications for language acquisition. Go beyond a summary of what we’re read. Seek to identify the major themes and connect and relate them in a meaningful way. 5-7 pages. Paper #2: Due at the start of the 13th class. Last day to hand in a revised paper is at the start of the 17th class. Argue the strengths and weaknesses of Bernstein’s theory (you can assume your audience is familiar with his work, thus negating the need for a perfunctory description or summary). Your aim in this paper is not to decide whether or not you “agree” with Bernstein, but instead to examine the rigor of his methods and the strength of his conclusions. Examine also the criticism we’ve encountered in our study of Bernstein. Adapting elements from his work and from the work of the other sociolinguists we’ve examined, develop a sense of your own theoretical understanding of code. 5-7 pages. Final Paper: Due at the time of your second conference. We have been looking at ways that schools exacerbate rather than ameliorate the challenges present in the process of educating the poor child. How do schools perpetuate the problem? Given the decided structural constraints that produce these conditions, outline a detailed and specific plan for schools (addressing suggestions toward the administrators of the school district, the administrators of individual schools, and the teachers). I’m not asking you to address ways in which we can face these problems at a structural level (i.e. by fighting poverty). That is, I’m not asking you to outline a plan so that there will be less children living in poverty. Instead, I’m asking: how must we educate the poor child? Prepare a fifteen minute lesson that is directed at a classroom audience of varying socioeconomic statuses. You will be expected to teach your lesson at your fieldwork placement. 15-20 pages, not including your lesson plan.
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