Comparison of the Factorial Structure of Oral Coding Patterns for a Middle-Class and a Working-Class Group

Abstract

The present study was designed to compare the factorial structure of oral coding patterns for a middle-class and a working-class group in terms of a Bernstein derived thesis of greater differentiation and specificity for middle-class subjects because of their ability to manipulate more of the semantic and structural resources of language. Twenty-eight indices of oral coding elaboration were obtained from 40 middle-class and 40 working-class tertiary students. Pearson Product-Moment correlations were obtained and, by using principal components factor analysis, the middle-class matrix yielded nine factors, the working-class matrix eight. By interpretation of the factor patterns and statistical comparisons using Burt's coefficient of congruence, the thesis of greater differentiation and specificity in middle-class code elaboration was sustained.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bernstein, B. ( 1962a). Linguistic codes, hesitation phenomena and intelligence . Language and Speech, 5, 31.

Bernstein, B. ( 1962b). Social class, linguistic codes and grammatical elements . Language and Speech, 5, 221.

Bernstein, B. ( 1964). Elaborated and restricted codes: their social origins and some consequences. In J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (eds.), The Ethnography of Communication , American Anthropologist Special Publication, 6.

Bernstein, B. ( 1965). A socio-linguistic approach to social learning . In J. Gould (ed.), Penguin Survey of the Social Sciences (London), 144.

Lawton, D. ( 1968). Social Class, Language and Education ( London).

Olim, E.G. (n.d.). Scoring Manual-Language Styles and Suggested Procedures for Scoring Language Samples. Amhurst, University of Massachusetts, Department of Human Development.

Poole, Millicent E. ( 1971a). Social class and language utilization. Bulletin, Victorian Inst. Ed. Res. No. 25.

Poole, Millicent E. ( 1971b). Social class differences in code elaboration: a study of oral communication at the tertiary level, Australian J. Ed., 15, 152.

Smedley, D.A. ( 1969). Language and social class among grammar school children. Brit. J. Ed. Psychol., 39, 195.