Speech codes and speech variants: social class and task differences in children's speech

Abstract

The speech of children aged 11, in socially contrasted groups, was analysed across a range of communicative tasks. On most ‘traditional’ measures, consistent group differences did not appear. There were significant differences on measures directly derived from the ‘planning principles’ said by Bernstein to underlie restricted and elaborated codes. Even on these, however, there was considerable task variation. There was no evidence of rigidity in the speech of the lower-working-class children, and no evidence of a persistent orientation to one code rather than the other.