Language in Use 219-220
Membership of different social groups is so much a part of day-to-day" living that we seldom consider how it is that we know who belongs to what groups. The aim of this unit is to show how we exploit the means which language provides for achieving and maintaining a sense of identity with others in the formation of social groups. It focuses upon the school and considers how distinctive language habits form an essential part of its life. It explores the way in which pupils conic to know that they belong, to an identifiable social group and recognise that others belong to different groups
[1] The aim of this session is to get the class to focus on the basic
topic of the unit. Ask the class, working in groups, to sketch out a script
for a television interview programme which samples the whole range of local
opinion on a controversial subject like a new road, going comprehensive, setting
up a new but dirty industry or rebuilding the town centre. In discussion,
ask the class to imagine themselves viewing the programme when, first, the sound
breaks down and then, when it has been restored, the vision fails. Ask them
how they would be able to identify the different social groups to which the
interviewed people belonged in both circumstances. Points to consider include:
(a) for the vision only:
(i) age, dress and manner of the person interviewed
(ii) his non-verbal gestures
(iii) his attitude towards the interviewer
(iv) where he was interviewed;
(b) for the sound only:
(i) what clues his way of speaking gives about (i),
(iii) and (iv) above
(ii) features like accent, local phrases, uncommon usage
(iii) his way of speaking
(iv) any direct verbal reference to those he sees himself
associated With, or dissociated from, in relation to the topic
under discussion
(v) his general attitude to the world.
Consider in discussion how accurate a placing is possible from one or other of the media taken alone.
[2] For this session, repeat the pattern of session [1], but this time take the school is the. locality for the programme, and select issues that concern the public behaviour of teenagers or the immediate future of the school itself.
[3] In this session, the focus is upon certain specific ways of using
language within a school that lend themselves to marking boundaries between
social groups. Following on from [2], ask the class to consider what words
and phrase are currently available under the following heads: who would be likely
to use them, who would never use them, and what would happen if the 'wrong'
person did use them:
(a) names for work tasks, parts of the school, divisions of time, and routine
activities
(b) ways of expressing individual likes and dislikes, especially towards matters
relating to the life of the school
(c) language for marking off the world of the school from the world outside
(d) the language used in the school for the public expression of approval and
disapproval.
[4] This session draws together the work of the other three by asking the class, working in groups, to sketch out profiles of all the major social groups in the school; and then to do the same for the school itself. This will bring them to consider what aspects of the language habits of the school are concerned with maintaining the individual identity of groups within it, like middle-class slang, or modes of address only available to senior pupils, and those that are concerned with maintaining the identity of the school itself as a social group. The sketches should be circulated and form the basis for class discussion. If it is possible to do this unit with several classes there is great value in discussing with one form the profiles produced in [4] by another. The contrast between them, and the similarities, will enhance the pupils' awareness of the part language is playing in marking out their relationships with others.