A Summary of Environmentalist Views and Some Educational Implications

The enigma ‐ The persistent failure of black children in learning to read

“…How does one, therefore, account for the failure in primary grades? Plummer (1973) also notes that while altering the child's value system may help, this is not sufficient to overcome the problem. He asserts:…”

Testing Basil Bernstein's Sociolinguistic Theories

“…If neither the restricted nor the elaborated speech variant indicators cluster together, it is difficult to talk about elaborated or restricted speech variants, much less elaborated and restricted codes. Plumer (1970) complains that the distinctions between elaborated and restricted codes "have varied substantially according to researcher and project" (p. 292). There is insufficient empirical support for determining the significance of individual indi-cators, much less establishing how the indicators have related to each other (Plumer, 1970).…”

“…After partialling out nonverbal IQ scores, achievement scores taken at the end of the school year will provide a measure of the children's success in school in relationship to code usage and perceived discretion. It is time to find out what are some of the "social implications" of Bernstein's ideas (Plumer, 1970).…”

The Status of Children's Intellectual Rights

“…It is not surprising, then, to find reports of significantly different scores on a wide variety of verbal measures for elementary school children from different social contexts, the direction of difference favoring speakers who employ the academically preferred medium. Reviews by Plummer (1970), Cazden (1966), Gordon (1965), and others suggest that on any standardized verbal task-whether it involves vocabulary, coding ability, syntax, reading comprehension, and so on-low-status children will fare poorly relative to higher status age mates. T h e Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) deserves special attention since it is now perhaps the most accepted standardized index of verbal ability.…”