Social Class Labelling in the Application of Bernstein's Theory of the Codes to the Identification of Linguistic Advantage and Disadvantage in Five‐Year‐Old Children

Abstract

Abstarct Misinterpretation of Bernstein's theory of language codes has important implications for the school. The terms ‘elaborated’ and ‘restricted’ code have often been used by many teachers as labels to identify a socially determined linguistic advantage and disadvantage of pupils. This paper considers reasons why Bernstein has been misinterpreted, and describes an experiment in which undergraduate students in applying categories derived from Bernstein's lists of ‘linguistic code markers’ to representational speech of five‐year‐old children interpreted the results in accordance with expectations emanating from a simplistic understanding of the theory. It was found that the students selected from the children's language only those structures that were consistent with the social class labels they had applied. It is suggested that the labelling consequence of teachers’ misinterpretations of the theory of the codes is likely to become a self‐fulfilling prophecy affecting pupils’ performance in school.