Defining issues in Ed Ling

[Dan Douglas]

Dick:  You raise an important issue, and help clarify the problem, I
think.  When I suggest that we need to understand the nature of language
use in the educational context, I mean that we need to know more about not
only the learners' language use, but what the expectations of the
educational system are as well.  What is this "cognitive academic language
proficiency" / school language we educational linguists are interested
in?  Helping our learners develop a rich repertoire of linguistic choices,
appropriate for the many contexts they'll find themselves negotiating as
they move through the system and enter the workplace as adults is what
we're about, it seems to me.

Cheers,
Dan

At 07:26 PM 12/15/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Dear Dan,
>I'm not sure what you mean by this:
>>  The bottom line is understanding the nature of language use in the
>> educational context, it seems to me, and, as you suggest, tests can be
>> used to encourage teachers to discover the complex language systems
>> pupils already control.
>
>You seem to be assuming that educational language is just a particular way
>of using a child's existing language resources. While agreeing that there
>has been a tendency for teachers to underestimate these resources, I also
>think there's a danger of overestimating them. One of the foundations for
>language work (in L1 English) over here in England is the (Hallidayan)
>belief that those resources need to grow - schools teach new language, in
>fact a very great deal of it. New vocabulary, new syntax and new meanings
>that the children wouldn't have without schooling. Maybe you wouldn't
>agree, but if you do, would that be covered by your "language use"?
>
>Dick
>
>Richard (= Dick) Hudson
>
>Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London,
>Gower Street, London WC1E  6BT.
>+44(0)20 7679 3152; fax +44(0)20 7383 4108;
>http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm
>

Professor, TESL/Applied Linguistics Program
Co-editor, Language Testing
English Department
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011, USA
Phone: (515) 294-9365
Fax: (515) 294-6814
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