RAMONA
RENFROE
JESSICA
BURLAMACHI
HANNAH JOY
SALEEBY
ALEX
LAKATOS
BRITTANY
GLOVER
LAUREN
THOMPSON
Linguistic Anthropologist
Author, Professor, Researcher, Director
Interests & Specializations
Learning environments OUTSIDE of the
teacher-led classroom
Oral & written language
Youth development
Race relations
Organizational learning
Taught at Stanford University for 20+ years
Holds honorary degrees from Georgetown University, Carnegie Mellon
University, Stockholm University, and University of London
Currently teaching at Brown University
http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10170
Where in the world is Shirley Brice Heath?
Mexico Guatemala
United States
South Africa England
Germany
Sweden
1. Language socialization
3. Youth culture
2. Organizational learning
4. Language planning
Heath’s Focus:
“…to study communities who lead entrepreneurial and community
building skills while developing and maintaining learning environments
that contribute culturally and economically.”
http://research.brown.edu/research/profile.php?id=10170
Explores 4 youth-based art organizations:
Boston
New York
Rural areas of Kentucky & northern California
“...profoundly illustrates ways in which young people can defy public
perception of being vulnerable, apathetic, and
disengaged from productive challenge”.
http://www.shirleybriceheath.com/2008/12/shirley-brice-heath.html
Language, Life, and Work in
Communities and Classrooms
Part I: Ethnographer Learning
1. The Piedmont: Textile mills
and times of change
Getting’ On in 2 communities
3. Learning how to talk in Trackton
4. Teaching how to talk in Roadville
2.
Oral Traditions
6. Literate Traditions
7. The Townspeople
5.
Part II:
8. Teachers as learners
9. Learners as ethnographers
AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY:
Word, Martha. Review, American Anthropologist, Vol. 86 No. 4
(Dec.1984), pp. 1047-1048. Web. Nov. 9th, 2010
CHICAGO JOURNALS:
Miller, Peggy. Review, American Journal of Education, Vol.
94. No. 1 (Nov. 1985), pp. 106-108. Web. Nov. 8th, 2010
LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA:
Feagin, Crawford, Language, Vol. 61. No. 2 (Jun. 1985), pp.
489-493. Web. Nov. 9th, 2010
Students who speak another
language or who have a different
dialect are NONE of the
following:
•Dumb
•Rude
•Slow
•Lazy
•but Heath points out that these are the
first reactions that educators have towards
ESL, ELL, and students of “other” dialects.
* Suzanne deCastell and Tom Walker’s journal article, “Identity,
Metamorphosis, and Ethnographic Research: What "Kind" of Story
Is Ways with Words?” published in Anthropology and Education
Quarterly, focuses on how Heath’s linguistic and ethnographic
study of Roadville and Trackton is informative in understanding
the cultural aspects behind language development.
* deCastell and Walker praise Heath’s
highlighting of Roadville and Trackton’s oral
traditions in Chapter 5 - it provides a good
example of how young children are able to learn
what is and is not a culturally acceptable means of
“story telling” in their communities.
* However, deCastell and Walker also point out the issues that
students have who have studied the text, regarding Heath’s
contributions to the study of language.
Not being able to accept Heath’s study as a project of merit
since it did not work.
* They also claim that Heath’s assertion that making
beneficial changes to the educational system are not
possible.
This made students feel upset at the belief that attempts
to make a positive change would be pointless.
* Linda Brodkey’s “Writing Critical Ethnographic Narratives” also
presents an anthropological perspective on Ways With Words, by
claiming that Heath’s use of the “ethnographic present” is crucial in
the reader understanding the context of the work.
Creates a sense of the here and now in a narrative taken place in the
past.
* However, Brodkey also does not believe that Heath completely
conforms to this concept.
Appears as though the “ethnographic present” becomes too much
of a story rather than an ethnographic and linguistic account on
the language development .
* Meaning Brodkey argues that Heath is merging actual occurrences
the with narrative style details.
Believes this can come across as distracting to the reader.
* Overall Brodkey deems Heath’s Ways With Words as a work of
merit and beneficial to the education of ethnographic and linguistic
study.
However, in conclusion she argues that ethnographic works such
as Heath’s should be written as is and without the element of the
typical narrative.
* Repeated process of aggression, interaction, and unpredictable feedback
Live in an uncertain world and they need to know that to “get on”
*Tested continually and need to give as good as they get
*Responding with aggression is approved; crying is ignored or punished
* Trackton demands reciprocity, no submission or you are seen as weak.
GIRLS:
* Not allowed on the main stage very often
* Have to talk to themselves a lot- no other form of interaction
available
* Older siblings try to help but any help from boys is frowned upon
* 2 TYPES OF PARTICIPATION
– Fussing- only way they can show aggression and dominance,
even to boys
– Playsong games
• Use them to teach babies when adults can’t or won’t
• Both good and bad subjects
* Must learn many nonverbal signals
* Must be able to take on any role the situation calls for
* Must know they live in an uncertain world and act
accordingly
* Words do not matter - signals, tone, and context
* Not expected to be information-givers – rather, to take
in information by “being keen”
* Adults never use or approve of baby talk
3 STAGES OF PARTICIPATION
– Repetition stage
– Repetition with variation
– participation
• Such as:
–
–
–
–
–
Reducing phonological structure of words
Substituting easier sounds for more complex ones
Reducing inflections
Using special lexical items
Clarifying features
• Slowing speech
• Using special pitch or intonation patterns
• Substituting names for pronouns
What Adults Really
Want Children to
Know
• Ask 5 types of questions to gauge their language and
thinking skills
– Analogy
– Story-starter
– Accusation
– Answer with information
– Questioner has information
• Crucial to these questions is the “embeddedness” of
interactional contexts
• Questions are used to gauge what a child knows about
what a particular utterance means to the speaker and
how it can be interpreted
• Ethnographies Reviewed
– “Draws us into their lives with the artistry and
finesse of a novelist.”
– Carefully documented
– Wonderful research into implications for teachers
• Quarterly Journal of Speech
– Comparison to others in field
• Has a depth and breadth uncommon
• Manages to balance multiple factors well
• Praise for her dedication, immersion, and application of findings to
teachers
• Lively style, easy to read yet succinct
• Journal of Education
– More concerned with educational implications
– Patterns of continuity between what children do at home and
what goes on at school
– Focused on analyzing what parents in the book did wrong
Students from a similar geographic
area will have similar life experiences.
A resistance to reading and writing is a
resistance to learning.
Dialect differences in the classroom are
minor issues.
•
•
•
•
Socialization
Exposure to different cultures
Code Switching
Responsibilities of the teacher
“When Ways with Words was first published, its
final word pointed to the merits of bridging
between classrooms and communities in efforts
to create opportunities for more students to
demonstrate accurately their competence with
and through language. The Bridging metaphor
remains viable today, but the span of the bridge
and the vehicles that cross it will differ.”
“Realignments of time and space, shifts of intimacy and social structures
and new sources of entertainment and consumerism have influenced
classrooms as much as communities since Ways with Words was first
published. Language as both tool and target of socialization reflects these
changes deeply and subtly in form, content and use… Exploring creatively
the need for social connectedness of institutions, such as schools and youth
organizations, as well as the workplace, offers us ways to create and tell
new stories. As we do so, we have to acknowledge that what seem limits or
losses can be beginnings as well as ending.”