They’re my words – I’ll talk how I like! Examining social class and linguistic practice among primary-school children

Abstract

The central role played by language in mediating school experience and the prestige accorded to standard language varieties within the field of education provide the broad rationale for this paper. This qualitative study, based on a friendship focus-group design, was conducted in two groups of 12-year-old children from contrasting ‘ideal type’, socioeconomic groups over a period of one school year. The study examines the children's use of and attitude to language variation. A six-point typology of linguistic styles is identified based on specific patterns of usage among the participants. The study provides an insight into the levels of stratification that exist with respect to language use among children and the complex interdependence of a range of factors contributing to the persistence of linguistic continuity and discontinuity between schools and different social/gender groups.

Keywords:

• language variation
• linguistic discontinuity
• social class
• language management
• stylization
• style shifting
• child agency