Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Method / 121

4.5 From home data to educational practice

4.5.1 Home conversations and classroom interaction

I will consider now to what extent it is legitimate to contrast home
conversations and classroom interaction for pedagogical applications.

After the controversy on 'deficit' versus 'difference' interpretations of
the language abilities of children entering school, the current focus on
pragmatics has added a new dimension to the 'difference' explanation:
beyond the basic argument that teachers and pupils may use different
language varieties and may not share the same cultural background, it is
argued that there is a considerable variation among preschoolers in the
range of uses of language at home and therefore some children find the
transition between home conversational experience and classroom
interaction more difficult than others, with consequences for learning and
attainment. This position will be referred to as the 'Discontinuity' or
'Mismatch' model. Table 4.2 in the following page presents a summary of
the differences found between home conversations and classroom

Interaction.

The mismatch theory has been criticized on different grounds. Ogbu
compared different minority group children in the USA and, drawing also
on contrasting evidence from his own Ibo culture, notes that the mismatch
model

... has not been applied to immigrant minorities and other groups
who differ from their public school teachers in communicative
strategies and interpretation of situated meanings but nonetheless
are more successful in school and in learning to read than black
Americans, <0gbu,1982:124>

McTear argues that the discontinuity theory is extremely controversial :

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