Social Class Language Differences in Group Discussions

Abstract

This report deals with the second stage of a three-part study of groups of working-class and middle-class boys of average intelligence aged 12 and 15. The first part (Lawton, 1963) consisted of an analysis of the written language of these boys; the second part is an analysis of some aspects of the speech of the same boys in group discussions; the final stage will deal with the speech of the same subjects in individual interviews. The purpose of this second part of the study was to provide data comparable with that contained in Bernstein's paper (1962b), to compare the results of 15 year old boys with those of boys aged 12, and also to make possible a comparison of the written and spoken modes of language of the same subjects.