Language Diversity and Classroom Discourse

Abstract

A suit filed in 1977 on the behalf of preschool and elementary school children living in Ann Arbor, Michigan alleged that the children’s home and community language impeded their equal participation in instructional programs and that the school had not taken appropriate action to overcome the barrier. The focus of the case was on reading instruction, and the role of dialect in classroom discourse was not at issue. There are few studies, however, that present formal linguistic evidence for communication problems in everyday classroom interaction in classrooms where children are dialect speakers. This paper describes such a study. It is based on extensive videotaped, audiotaped, and observational data collected in a Washington, DC elementary school. A wide variety of events was observed and recorded in a kindergarten, fourth, and sixth grade classroom, including whole group lessons, small groups with and without the teacher (both of an academic and non-academic nature), and one-on-one interaction. This paper briefly examines the issues and problems encountered in coding language functions, and discusses the overall project findings and conclusions, with examples drawn from representative portions of the data base. It is suggested that the development of functional language skills and of situationally appropriate language use precluded the occurrence of interference in the classrooms observed.