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I have noticed a resurgence of the verbal deprivation/linguistic deficit approach lately (Hart and Risley get a lot of attention) although this one does not place the blame on lower or working-class parents - just all parents who work - which is an interesting spin. Educational psychologists often seem to be the ones promoting these ideas although there are others. And I agree that there is no indication (I would love to be proven wrong here) they understand the nature of language/linguistics. Still, their ideas gain traction among educational policy makers (I think) because (a) psychologists have numbers and (b) they tap into already existing, however incorrect, assumptions about language and language learning. <br><br>David<br><br><br>> From: rkephart@unf.edu<br>> Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 18:31:14 -0500<br>> Subject: Re: [lg policy] UK: Children unable to talk properly because of working parents<br>> To: lgpolicy-list@groups.sas.upenn.edu<br>> <br>> On 1/3/10 5:26 PM, "Harold Schiffman" <hfsclpp@gmail.com> wrote:<br>> <br>> > Jean Gross, a former education psychologist...<br>> <br>> Oh, ye gods. Are "education psychologists" trained in linguistics? Aren't<br>> these the people who told us Black English was was an index of cognitive<br>> deficiency? Are there any laws against impersonating a linguist (or<br>> anthropologist)?<br>> <br>> OK, at least she's correct when she says the following:<br>> <br>> "Our brains have not evolved to learn from machines. Babies are primed to<br>> respond to a face, and to recognise their parents' faces."<br>> <br>> But then, she recovers with this:<br>> <br>> "I still think parents staying home and looking after their own children is<br>> ideal, or making sure a grandparent or trusted person will give a child<br>> that one-to-one intense development of language."<br>> <br>> One-to-one? Really? Has she read any of the ethnographic literature on<br>> child-rearing practices? Does she think that language acquisition is a<br>> learning experience that requires specific one-to-one teaching?<br>> <br>> Oh, and what exactly is talking "properly?"<br>> <br>> Are we all doomed? And why am I asking so many questions?<br>> <br>> Ron<br>> <br>> <br>> _______________________________________________<br>> This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list<br>> lgpolicy-list@groups.sas.upenn.edu<br>> To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br> <br /><hr />Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. <a href='http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222986/direct/01/' target='_new'>Get it now.</a></body>
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