After reading the chapter, I have come to conclusion that language differences and class divisions are almost inevitable. In recent decades, research has shown across low, middle, and high SES groups that your parent’s language input directly effects their children’s language output. According to Hart and Risley’s study, the amount of language young children are exposed to correlates with SES. Children who come from highly successful families, significantly speak more on average to those from working-class or poverty level families. Depending on your SES, it is likely young children may lag behind or not communicate effectively due to the parent’s phonological variables. Considering the social distribution of language in New York, there seems to be more prestige with the consonantal [r] in the word “car” compared to the word “car” with the absence of the [r]. This is a great example of how the normal working of society have produced systematic differences. Socioeconomic scales have been subjected to scrutiny and seem to focus on superficial measures. But, it’s hard not to admit that socioeconomic status has a strong correlation to language differences. In order to better understand the features of “high-quality” input, examining words, sounds, sentences, and social contexts can influence an individual’s language learning, especially as a child. Many people defy the odds and are exceptions to this link between socioeconomic status and language variation.
Furthermore, what kind of factors contribute to these SES discrepancies? Stratification? Have you known someone who has defeated the odds against the link between language differences and SES?
