variations in language and literacy development handout
TRANSCRIPT
VARIATIONS IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT
DAGDAGAN, R. A. M.,DE LEON, L. C.,SALCEDO, S. M. N.
Different styles for talking
Social Group
is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity.
DIALECT – are distinct variations within a language that are distinguished by phonology, syntax, meaning and use.
Standard Dialect – spoken by educated person
Nonstandard dialect – spoken by socially depressed, minority persons.
The interaction of social, cultural, and regional variations produces a complex overlapping of dialects in most countries.
Sensitivity to dialect use is often accompanied by negative perceptions of the speech of others.
Because children come to school with the language of their homes and communities, any denigration of that dialect is also a denigration of them and their families.
On the other hand, if children adhere to a dialect that is low in prestige, they are likely to find few opportunities for
successful employment outside their speech community (Shuy 1971).
The Evidence For Language Bias
Biased language
insults the person or group to which it is applied. In denigrating others, biased language creates division and separation. In using biased language about races and ethnic or cultural groups, speakers and writers risk alienating members of those groups, thus undermining the communication and shared understanding language should promote.”
(Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy II, The Scribner Handbook for Writers. Allyn and Bacon, 2001)
Gender-biased language
implies that people are male unless 'proven' to be female. Female gender may be designated by either tagging on a feminine descriptor (e.g. lady professor, women doctor, female engineer) or by belonging to a stereotypically female group (e.g., kindergarten teacher, social worker)."(Janet B. Ruscher, Prejudiced Communication: A Social Psychological Perspective. Guilford, 2001)
Economic status
Nonstandard dialects tend to be from the lower classes; their lower class status and different dialect complicate efforts to make schooling equal.
Implicit biases toward pupil’s language may interfere with learning if teachers lower their expectations for their students’ success.
Teachers held negative judgments toward black children and their black English dialect (Williams 1970)
Low expectations by teachers has been found to result in low achievement.
If the teacher was of the same race as the children, the bias was reduced, but this finding was true only if the children were of a higher socioeconomic level than the teacher.
It is important that professionals make every effort to reduce any negative bias they may hold toward students on the basis of those students’ dialect.
The Deficit View
Socioeconomic
The IQs of black children were lower than those of white children. (Deutsch, Brown)
Being poor and/or a member of a minority group resulted in a tendency to have poorer language functioning than being white and middle class.
Lower class mothers tended to provide less verbal explanation to their four-year old children in problem solving tasks than black middle class mothers did.
Auditory discrimination
C. Deutsch found poor auditory discrimination in lower class black first graders who were unsuccessful in beginning reading.
poverty
The language of children of poverty lacked sufficient structure and meaning for appropriate learning.
The Difference View
Rather than looking to the individual and the individual’s cognition for the sources of educational problems, these linguists examined the language of nonstandard speakers with the view that different forms(dialects) of language are equally sufficient for expression.
Creolization
The process in which creole cultures engage in the new world. As a result of colonization there was a mixture between people of indigenous
Creole Language (Creole)
a stable natural language that has developed from a pidgin or simplified version of a language.
Continual modification of the dialect after slavery ended brought this dialect closer to other forms of American English.
There have been lexical borrowings from black to standard English despite of shown influence of standard American English to the black English
SUCH AS…
man – comrade
the man – cool, hot, etc.
gig or pad – (older jazz term)
Common Phonological Patterns of Black English
Reduction of /r/ and /l/ at the ends and in the middle of words
Simplification of final consonant clusters so that only the first of the two consonants is sounded
A general weakening of final consonants
Combinations of these consonant characteristics
Some variation in medial vowel sounds in certain contexts
Mostly for very young black English speakers - /f/ instead of //: “roof” for “Ruth”
Further Characteristics of Black English
Optional deletion of possessive marker
Deletion of noun plural in some instances
Insertion of pronoun after the proper noun
Alternate forms of variant verbs
Different systems of noun-verb agreement
Variant structure of embedded questions
Differential transformational rules for some negatives
Indefinite article differences
Possessive and other pronoun differences
Prepositions that vary in some settings
The Communication View
Communication View
Children learn the language of their families
Styles of interaction may vary by family and by cultural group
Metaphor in Black English
Bible story metaphorically to represent current issues
Signify – speech form which negative meaning is portrayed in an INDIRECT even hidden, manner.
Marking – narrative form in which EXAGGERATION and EMPHASIS establish the nonliteral meaning as the real one.
Sounding – is a popular form of exchange among adolescents. Initially an insult about someone’s family member.
Differences between Parent-Child Exchanges
Black Children
growing up in Trackton
Learn to communicate in a different style
Little dialogue, play songs and monologue
With an emphasis on creation and embellishment, children needed to interrupt to talk with adults
White Children
growing up in Roadville
Working-class family
Considerable attention to the set time, the set place and the set way of talking
Much on baby talk than in Trackton
Parents spent sharing books with their children until they enter school
Parents knew that their role was to teach the children
But did not establish links between early literacy experiences
TRACKTON
Reading that took place over notices and bills
Group talk
Used reading in religious activities
On the other hand, children on Trackton has lack on Experience with set times for things
ROADVILLE
Learned different method for communication
Much baby talked occurred
Sharing books with their children until school entrance
not linked between early literacy experiences and life of the community did not used reading and writing very much.
Children had difficulty extending their knowledge into new areas when school came
Parents stopped their teaching, believing that it was the job of the school
The separateness of school and home was not helpful to the children.
Tough concluded that there are important class differences in the talk between child and parent, differences that are carried into school.
three year-old Jimmie comes to his mother:
Jimmie: Look – look what I’ve found
Mother: Just look at your hands – black bright aren’t they?
Jimmie: Look at this thing – the ladybird – look it’s right little.
Mother: Go wash your hands now – just look at the color of them.
Jimmie: It’s a ladybird. I want to keep it . . .
three year-old Mark and his smaller sister play with their mother close by:
Mark: What’s this funny thing for?
Mother: Let me look – oh yes, see, it’ a hook. Can you find something that will fasten on behind the lorry?
Mark: Yes – I see – well it might be a breakdown one couldn’t it?
Mother: Oh, do you think so? What are breakdown lorries like? – do you remember? ….
Parents influence how their children think
Communication view of language differences rests upon the concept that discourse styles in families influence language development
The apparent lack of understanding of school expectations comes from differences in communication rather than from inability to communicate
Language Differences in literacy
Questions:
Does dialect and language variation influence reading and writing?
What is the extent of the influence, if any, are explored?
Answers:
keep the regular school talk and materials
Adjust to the mismatch through teaching or to revise the material to meet the children’s language.
Dialect and reading
Does dialect affect reading?
Does changing the dialect will help the students in reading?
How does emergent language affect reading?
Evidence for direct interference
School
Reading
writting
Evidence for indirect interference
Oral reading
Spelling
Writing Requires the encoding of one’s language knowledge into representative graphemes
Bilingualism
having some ability to use two or more languages.
have equal competence (thus native ability)in using two languages
Acquisition of a second language at home.
Does bilingualism affects children’s overall language and cognitive development?
(Linhom 1980) acquiring two language suggest very little harm and some advantage derived from simultaneous acquisition.
The explanation lies in social roots
Acquisition of a second language at school.
(Carrow- Woolfolk and lynch 1982)there is no evidence that lexical, syntactic, and meaning structure of second language are more easily acquired by children
Schooling and Bilingualism
Beneficial educational environments should offer the opportunity for children to acquire a second language in naturalistic ways.
Language Immersion
Immersion Program (Lambert, 1970)
Immersion and underlying language competency
To the extent that instruction in Lx is effective in promoting cognitive/ academic proficiency in Lx, transfer of this proficiency to Ly will occur provided there is adequate exposure to Ly (either in school or environment)and adequate motivation to learn Ly(1981, 141)