Literature / 58
2.5 Ethnography of communication
2.5.1 Cross-cultural variation in adult-child interaction
Considerable attention has been given in sociological and psychological
literature to differences between social classes or cultural∕ethnic
subgroups within Vestern societies. Following the line of research of
Bernstein, attempts have been made to single out what differentiates
working class and middle class families in relation to the development of
language competence in children; there has been a reconsideration of
previous conclusions about some groups being confined to a 'restricted
code' of language use in, for example, question-reply patterns, by the
same authors who suggested such a characterization (Robinson and
Rackstraw,1972), mainly after having introduced alterations in
methodology:
To be able to show that there are withln-class mother-child
linkages like the between-class differences further weakens the
feasibility of any hypothesis that asserts a strong generalized
confinement to a restricted code of language use by members of low
socio-economic status groups. (Robinson,1981:166).
The main criticism of the 'deficit position' consists in pointing out the
arbitrariness of inferring competence from performance, when the subjects
are asked to perform in manners and situations inconsistent with their
cultural experience (Cole and Bruner, 1972).
The power of the middle class has rendered differences into
deficits because middle class behaviour is the yardstick of
success. (Cole and Bruner,1971:869).
Enlarging the analysis of how communicative interaction is organized in
societies other than the Western provides an even wider perspective and
raises problems of universals (Lloyd and Gay,1981). Current descriptions