Extract from Berlin, Laura J., Marion Blank, and Susan A. Rose. “The language of instruction: The hidden complexities.” Topics in language disorders 1.1 (1980): 47-58.
ISSUES TO BE ANALYZED
The issue of constraint in classroom dialogue has received considerable attention, but other factors in school language also need serious study. This article will focus on three of these factors:
- Complexity of dialogue (the level at which discussion is carried on);
- The question of failure (the need to recognize and treat errors provoked by teaching); and
- Compartmentalization of language (the tendency to categorize language into distinct and separate subcategories).
Productive classroom exchanges hinge on the management of these components of language. Unfortunately, because these components have often been neglected, in current classrooms such components are counterproductive to learning.
COMPLEXITY OF DIALOGUE
All teaching assumes that children will comprehend the ongoing discussion. Further, in presenting information and in asking questions, teachers not only believe that ideas will be understood but also that they will stimulate children’s development. Because the information and questions cover a wide range of content, the utterances in any discussion can vary greatly. Thus, in a first-grade class the children may hear formulations such as:
- “Pick up your pencils.”
- “What shape is the door?”
- “Since we’re going to be away for the
holiday, we’ll need someone to take
care of the animals.” - “After you complete the first worksheet, I want you to finish the math that we didn’t get to yesterday.” Utterances such as these encompass differences not only in content but also in complexity.
However, the factor of complexity has received remarkably little attention. Care has been taken to limit the conceptual content of the instruction (e.g., first-graders would not be expected to discuss the French Revolution or concepts of relativity theory). Although considerable effort has been expended in matching the difficulty of the content to the children’s level of mastery, relatively little care has been taken to restrict the complexity of the verbal formulations offered to children.
Given the developmental limitations of children without disabilities and the continuing problems experienced by many children with disabilities, the more complex verbal formulations are clearly a source of serious concern. For example, if a child has difficulties attending to strings of verbal information, a request such as the earlier one, “Since we’re going to be away for the holiday, we’ll need someone to take care of the animals,” may provoke confusion. Faced with the seemingly endless flow of words, the language handicapped child might either retain only fragments of the total utterance or, more likely, simply “tune out” the auditory stream. When this occurs, the language hinders rather than enhances development.
