English For Share: SOCIOLINGUISTICS

SOCIOLINGUISTICS

- Rabu, 09 Juli 2014

INTRODUCTION

Linguistics is a natural science which explores natural language. Linguists investigate language by observing, gathering, and analyzing how humans use language in the same way that a scientist uses scientific method to gather and analyze observable data. The study of language is many faceted thus there are several linguistic sub-fields. A large body of linguistic research is devoted to theory such as phonetics (the study of sounds), phonology(the study of how sounds are strung together), morphology (the formation of words), syntax (the structure of phrases), and semantics (the construct of meaning). Other fields of linguistic study are language acquisition (how one learns her native language as well as foreign languages), historical linguistics (finding the roots of and connection between languages), socio-linguistics which is focused on language in society, language change, language planning, and how social constructs influence language.

Use of different linguistic items by a speaker for communicating the same message with in different social situation gave birth to the idea of linguistic and social inequality. When a speaker makes a choice with in the vast range of linguistic choices, the selection made by the speaker shows a degree of preference for any choice. All this depends on the social and educational status of the speaker. Means to say people have different levels of linguistic competence and linguistic performance which provide basis for the notion of linguistic inequality. In the same way people with different social and cultural background shows the levels of social inequality as well as different social status.

6.3 Linguistic Incompetence

Competence, defined by Chomsky, is person’s specific linguistic knowledge, and the notion of linguistic incompetence concerns the lack of linguistic knowledge of any language; furthermore, it is the lack of a kind of knowledge of language proper. Incompetenceis also best described as lack of knowledge of meaning, not of content or truth-conditions and not of the context, but of how one goes about interpreting a metaphor. This case of linguistic incompetence in metaphor is also especially interesting precisely because it is so hard to imagine. It asks us to conceive of s speaker who is fully competent “speaking literally” a full member of our linguistic community.

6.3.1 The Deficit Theory

The claim that linguistic incompetence is found in the children from lower-class houses is known asDeficit Theory. This theory can be a dangerous nonsense that many school systems put the blame of their educational failure on the inadequacies of the child.

Some children rarely give anything more than a single word in his answer to a teacher and some teachers conclude that the child is incompetent. But it is possible that fault lies not in child’s linguistic competence but in the situation. He might be a very good speaker in his family or friends. The student underestimated in this way faces a lot of problems during his educational career.

Bernstein (1960’s) claimed that there are two ways of using language, as follows;

i. Restricted Codes

ii. Elaborated Codes

6.3.2 Restricted and Elaborated Codes (I)

1. ElaboratedCode

It is a kind of speech which is relatively explicit and is a kind of speech required to be used in relatively formal and educated situations, permitting people to be reasonably creative in their expression and to use a range of linguistic alternatives. Middle-class children’s success at school is due to their acquiring this elaborated code in speaking with their parents at home.

In one of his experiments Bernstein choose two five year olds, one from a working class background and one from a middle class background. The two five year olds were shown four pictures. They were then told to make up a story and ask what they could see in the four pictures. The middle class five year old explained every picture in detail making it easy for the listener to understand the story without looking at the pictures. Whereas the working class five year old, struggled with the detail and without the aid of the pictures the listener wouldn’t have understood what was happening.

2. Restricted Code

This is a kind of speech used between the people who know each other well, thought to be used in relatively informal situations, stressing the speaker's membership of a group, relying on context for its meaningfulness, and lacking stylistic range. Within the restricted code, speakers draw on background knowledge and shared understanding. This type of code creates a sense of includedness, a feeling of belonging to a certain group. Restricted codes can be found among friends and families and other intimately knit groups.

The attempt to correlate these codes with certain types of social class background, and their role in educational settings (such as whether children who are used to restricted code would succeed in schools where elaborated code is the norm) brought the theory considerable publicity and controversy.

According to Atherton (2002), “the elaborated code spells everything out, not because it is better, but because it is necessary so that everyone can understand it. It has to elaborate because the circumstances do not allow the speaker to condense.” The elaborated code works well in situations where there is no prior or shared understanding and knowledge, where more through explanation is required. If one is saying something new to someone they’ve never met before, they would most certainly communicate in elaborated code.

In differentiating between restricted and elaborated codes, it is noted that elaborated code can “stand on its own”, it is complete and full of detail, and most overhearing a conversation would be able to understand it. However, restricted code is shorter, condensed and requires background information and prior knowledge. A person overhearing a conversation full of restricted code would be quite lost. Furthermore Bernstein conclude that Deficit Theory claimed that people from lower working class use only restricted code. Whereas most of the members of higher class use both restricted and elaborated code according to circumstances.

The Scale of Vocabulary

On the scale of vocabulary we can say that there are no significant differences in overall size of vocabulary of lower and upper class children. The above statement is about quantity of vocabulary. But when we come to the quality we can say there is remarkable difference in the use of vocabulary between the working class children with low proficiency and upper class with high proficiency in language use.

This discussion rejects the notion of deficit theory that verbally deprived children have no language at all. The question is to seek out ways to solve the problem, caused by such linguistic prejudices.

6.4 CommunicativeIncompetence

6.4.1 Communicative Competence

The term ‘Communicative Incompetence’ is in contrast with the term ‘Communicative Competence’ established by Dell Hymes (1971); Campbell & Wales (1970). Communicative competence is knowledge of language needed by a speaker or hearer to grasp the message effectively. Communicative competence refers to a learner's ability to use language to communicate successfully. It includes our knowledge or ability to use linguistic forms appropriately.

Communicative competence that deals with producing and understanding sentences that are appropriate and acceptable to a particular situation.

Example

When to speak? and when not?

What to talk? with whom, when, where and in what manner?

There is a clear difference between who have been to school and those who not been to school. Non-schooled uses non-logical thinking. While Schooled are taught logical thinking to solve TraditionalSyllogism in order to create communicative competence.

Example

All people who own houses pay a house tax.

Bioma does not pay a have tax.

Does Bioma, own a house?

The provision of schooling can therefore be seen as only one factor in the development of schemata concerned, and that some children do learn schemata from school and others do not.

Some children do not want to learn the school’s schemata because of Subtractive Bilingualism. It creates a difficulty for school in persuading some children to accept some of schemata of school.

View of social inequality indicates that different people may be different in the explicitness of their speech in the same circumstance. Bernstein claimed that children from lower class homes are likely to be less explicit under the same circumstances than children from higher class homes.

Example

During an experiment to show explicitness in a description of pictures, lower class children on average need thrice as many prompts to be explicit than the middle class children.

It seems that the difference between codes is a matter of degree and it is a skill specific to a range of situation and not specific to the use of code successfully.

6.4.2The Communicative Competence of Lower-Class Children

Some people have a deficit (gap) in their communicative competence with respect to certain types of situation. Communicative competence depends more on situation thanthe individual’s social inequality. Each of us has own particular range of deficits or gaps (Cazden 1970) would a better term for some formal experimental or school situation in which they have to be explicit. Others may have gaps with respect to situations wherethey are confronted with an angry client and so on. Having seen what lower-class children do badly, it is only fair to look at some of the things they often do well.

Example 1

Picture: A man standing by a broken window and shouting on a boy.

Described by Middle class (Implicitly)

Working class (Explicitly)

Example 2

Making up a Bed-Time story.

Lower class girl: More fluent

Lower class boy: Least fluent

Middle class children: In between bothof them.

Conclusion:

The main problem of lower-class children at school is a culture-clash between middle-class culture, which controls the teacher’s behavior, and lower-class culture, to which the children are accustomed. It can be suggested that in order to achieve the objectives of the educational system we should make use of communicative competencewithin the child’s own culture which he brings to school, even if part of the aim of education is precisely to broaden this communicative competence.

In the multidimensional social space, speaker always communicate to let the other people know about his position in it. On the other hand listener also tries to draw conclusions about the speaker’s position in this multidimensional social space.A speaker sent social signals to show his position in this multidimensional social space in the form of the choice of linguistic items while communicating in society. It seems very right to say ‘Linguistic inequality breeds social inequality and social inequality breeds linguistic inequality.’

6.4.3 The Linguistic Demands of the School

One of the problems that language educators are facing today is that of teaching learners the “language of schooling.” Learning difficulties “may be related to inexperience with the linguistic demands of the tasks of schooling and unfamiliarity with ways of structuring discourse that are expected in school”. Consequently it is important to analyze linguistic problems because language is the primary medium of learning and instruction. For both native and non-native speakers of a language, it seems that there are challenges in the language of schooling because of the unfamiliar way this variety of language is presented in school textbooks. The influence of the language of schooling, which starts “in the early years of formal education”, it is felt either positively or negatively in later years in the different levels of formal education.

The purpose of the linguistic demands of the school is to help both researchers and teachers to draw more attention to different grammatical and discourse organization in order to discover their different values of schooling contexts. Thus, more collaboration between linguists and educators will result in the development of more linguistic learning strategies. Additionally, the development of these new and more effective and efficient learning strategies will productively affect learning in other school subjects. It should be noted here that, this type of functional linguistic analysis “can move us toward a classroom environment that build on the strengths children bring to school and assists them in gaining control of the linguistic resources that are powerful for maintaining or challenging the current social and educational order

SUMMARY

1. Linguistic Incompetence

2. The Deficit Theory

A British sociologist, Basil Bernstein (1958), who proposed the hypothesis of “poor language” (linguistic deficit hypothesis). According to Bernstein, success and ease of a handful of people to get social privilege certain extent dependent on the ability to speak in conveying the ideas. In other words, who is able to communicate only released from the bondage of poverty. Language suggests the nation. Language of social status. Poor or rich, elite or much to say, those who are socially poor have very limited language skills (restricted code). They are poor in the way of expressing the intent, purpose, motivation, interpretation, and expectation. Syntactically, short sentences, simple grammatical, sentence often dashed, and his vocabulary a bit. That is way it could happen and the same vocabulary repeated for the purposes stated in fact different. There are two ways ways of using language, as follows;

i. Elaborated Codes

ii. Restricted Codes

1. Elaborated Codes

2. Restricted Codes

This is a kind of speech used between the people who know each other well, this codewas thought to be used in relatively informal situations, stressing the speaker's membership of a group, relying on context for its meaningfulness, and lacking stylistic range. The restricted code does not assume that the listener shares these assumptions or understandings, and thus elaborated code is more explicit, more thorough, and does not require the listener to read between the lines.The restricted code is suitable for insiders who share assumptions and understanding on the topic. Within the restricted code, speakers draw on background knowledge and shared understanding. This type of code creates a sense of includedness, a feeling of belonging to a certain group. Restricted codes can be found among friends and families and other intimately knit groups.

3. Communicative Incompetence

‘Communicative Competence’ established by Dell Hymes (1971); Campbell & Wales (1970). Communicative competence is knowledge of language needed by a speaker or hearer to grasp the message effectively. Communicative competence refers to a learner's ability to use language to communicate successfully. It includes our knowledge or ability to use linguistic forms appropriately. Communicative competence that deals with producing and understanding sentences that are appropriate and acceptable to a particular situation.

4. The Communicative Competence of Lower-Class Children

5. Linguistic Demands of the School

6. The purpose of the linguistic demands of the school is to help both researchers and teachers to draw more attention to different grammatical and discourse organization in order to discover their different values of schooling contexts.

RINGKASAN

Linguistikadalah ilmualamyang membahas tentangbahasa alami. Ahli bahasamenyelidikibahasadengan mengamati, mengumpulkan, dan menganalisisbagaimana manusiamenggunakan bahasadengan cara yang samabahwa seorang ilmuwanmenggunakanmetode ilmiahuntuk mengumpulkandanmenganalisisdata yang dapat diobservasi.

1. Kemampuan Berbahasa

Kompetensi atau kemampuan yang didefinisikan olehChomsky, adalahpengetahuan linguistic tertentu seseorang. Sementara gagasan ketidakmampuan berbahasa menyangkut kurangnya pengetahuan kemampuan berbahasa apapun dengan kata lain dapat diartikan sebagai pengetahuan tentangbahasa yang kurang tepat. Ketidakmampuan ini juga digambarkan sebagai kurangnya pengetahuan tentang makna, bukan dari isi atau kebenaran (kondisi( dan bukan dari konteks, tapi bagaimana seseorang pergi tentang menafsirkan metafora. Ketidakmampuan berbahasa dalam metafora juga sangat menarik justru karena itu sangat sulit untuk dibayangkan. Ini meminta kita untuk memahami pembicara yang sepenuhnya cakap dalam "berbicara secara harfiah".

2. The Deficit Theory (Teori Miskin Bahasa)

Seorang sosiolog Inggris, Basil Bernstein (1958), yang mengajukan hipotesis “miskin bahasa” (linguistic deficit hypothesis). Bahwasannya keberhasilan dan kemudahan segelintir orang untuk mendapatkan keistimewaan sosial sejauh tertentu bergantung pada kemampuan berbahasa dalam menyampaikan buah pikiran. Dengan kata lain, hanya yang mampu berkomunikasilah yang terlepas dari jeratan kemiskinan. Bahasa menunjukkan bangsa. Bahasa menunjukkan status sosial. Miskin atau kaya, elit atau lebih jauh dikatakan, mereka yang miskin secara sosial memiliki kemampuan berbahasa yang sangat terbatas (restricted code). Mereka miskin dalam cara mengungkapkan maksud, tujuan, motivasi, interpretasi, dan harapan. Secara sintaksis, kalimatnya pendek-pendek, gramatikalnya sederhana, kalimatnya seringkali putus-putus, dan kosa katanya sedikit. Sehigga bisa terjadi, kosa kata yang sama diulang-ulang untuk menyatakan tujuan-tujuan yang sebenarnya berbeda. Menurut Basil Bernstein ada dua cara dalam menggunakan bahasa, yaitu;

i. Restricted Code

ii. Elaborated Code

v Restricted Code (kemampuan berbahsa yang terbatas)

Kode kemampuan yang terbatas yang di asumsikan digunakan dalam situasi yang relatif informal menekankan keanggotaan pembicara dari kelompok, bergantung pada konteks maknanya. Bahasa itu bisa diprediksi, dari gesture (gerak tubuh), mimik, ucapan (pronounce), kata ganti, pertanyaan (question), dan penggunaanintonasi untuk menyampaikan makna. Upaya untuk mengkorelasikan kode ini dengan jenis tertentu dari latar belakang kelas sosial, dan peran mereka dalam pengaturan pendidikan (seperti apakah anak-anak yang sudah terbiasa dengan kode terbatas akan berhasil di sekolah di mana kode dielaborasi adalah norma) membawa teori publisitas yang cukup besar dan kontroversi.

v Elaborated Code (kemampuan berbahasa yang berelaborasi)

Kode elaborasi diasumsikan digunakan dalamsituasi yang relatif formal yang terdidik, memungkinkan orang untuk menjadi cukup kreatif dalam ekspresi mereka dan menggunakan berbagai alternatif bahasa. Hal ini dianggap ditandai dengan proporsi yang cukup tinggi, seperti anak kalimat, kata sifat, kata ganti I dan pasif.Dalam salah satu eksperimen, Bernstein memilih dua anak berusia lima tahun, salah satu dari latar belakang kelas pekerja dan satu dari latar belakang kelas menengah. Dua anak berusia lima tahun menunjukkan empat gambar. Mereka kemudian diberitahu untuk membuat sebuah cerita dan bertanya apa yang bisa mereka lihat dalam empat gambar. Kelas menengah berusia lima tahun menjelaskan setiap gambar secara rinci sehingga mudah bagi pendengar untuk memahami cerita tanpa melihat gambar. Sedangkan kelas pekerja berusia lima tahun, berjuang dengan detail dan tanpa bantuan gambar, hasilnya pendengar tidak akan mengerti apa yang sedang terjadi.

Dalam membedakan antara dibatasi dan diuraikan kode, diketahui bahwa kode dapat diuraikan"berdiri sendiri", itu adalah lengkap dan penuh detail, dan sebagian sengaja mendengar percakapan akan mampu memahaminya. Namun, kode terbatas yang lebih pendek, kental dan membutuhkan informasi latar belakang dan pengetahuan sebelumnya. Seseorang sengaja mendengar percakapan penuh kode terbatas akan cukup hilang. Selanjutnya Bernstein menyimpulkan bahwa Defisit Teori menyatakan bahwa orang-orang dari penggunaan kelas pekerja lebih rendah hanya kode dibatasi. Sedangkan sebagian besar anggota penggunaan kelas yang lebih tinggi baik dibatasi dan diuraikan kode sesuai dengan keadaan.

3. Kecakapan dan Ketidakcakapan Berbicara (Kompetensi Sosiolinguistik)

Istilah ketidakcakapan berbicara ini berbanding terbalik dengan kecakapan berbahasa yang diasumsikan oleh Dell Hymes (1971); Campbell & Wales (1970). Kompetensi komunikatif adalah pengetahuan tentang bahasa yang dibutuhkan oleh pembicara dan pendengar untuk memahami pesan secara efektif. Kompetensi komunikatif mengacu pada kemampuan pembelajar untuk menggunakan bahasa untuk berkomunikasi dengan sukses. Ini mencakup pengetahuan atau kemampuan untuk menggunakan bentuk-bentuk bahasa. Kompetensi komunikatif yang berhubungan dengan memproduksi dan memahami kalimat-kalimat yang sesuai dan dapat diterima pada situasi tertentu.

Kompetensi sosiolinguistik adalah pengetahuan tentang aturan-aturan tentang penggunaan sosial budaya, yaitu mengetahui bagaimana menggunakan dan menanggapi bahasa dengan tepat. Kesesuaian tergantung pada pengaturan komunikasi, topik, dan hubungan antara orang-orang berkomunikasi. Selain itu, menjadi tepat tergantung pada mengetahui apa yang tabu budaya lain, apa indeks kesantunan yang digunakan dalam setiap kasus, apa istilah politik yang benar akan menjadi sesuatu, bagaimana sikap tertentu contoh:otoritas, keramahan, kesopanan, ironi.

4. Kompentensi Komunikatif pada Anak-anak Kelas Bawah

Beberapa orang memiliki defisit(kekurangan) dalam kompetensi komunikatif mereka sehubungan dengan kondisi tertentu dari situasi. Kompetensi komunikatif lebih tergantung pada situasi dari kesenjangan sosial individu. Orang lain mungkin memiliki kesenjangan sehubungan dengan situasi di mana mereka dihadapkan dengan klien marah dan sebagainya.

Masalah utama anak-anak kelas bawah di sekolah adalah budaya yang berbeda antara budaya kelas menengah, yang mengontrol perilaku guru, dan budaya kelas bawah, dimana anak-anak yang berada dari kalangan bawah. Hal ini dapat disarankan bahwa untuk mencapai tujuan dari sistem pendidikan kita harus menggunakan kompetensi komunikatif dalam budaya sendiri anak yang ia membawa ke sekolah, bahkan jika bagian dari tujuan pendidikan justru untuk memperluas kompetensi komunikatif ini.

5. Tuntutan Bahasa Pendidikan di Sekolah

Salah satu masalah yang pendidik bahasa hadapi sekarang adalah bahwa pengajaran pelajar“bahasa pendidikan”. Kesulitan belajar mungkin berhubungan dengan kurangnya pengalaman dengan tuntutan linguistik tugas sekolah dan keakraban dengan cara wacana penataan yang diharapkan dalam sekolah. Oleh karena itu, sangat penting untuk menganalisis masalah linguistik karena bahasa adalah media utama pembelajaran dan pengajaran. Untuk penutur asli dan non-asli bahasa, tampaknya bahwa ada tantangan dalam bahasa sekolah karena cara asing ini berbagai bahasa disajikan dalam buku pelajaran sekolah. Pengaruh bahasa sekolah, yang dimulai di tahun-tahun awal pendidikan formal, itu dirasakan baik secara positif maupun negatif dalam tahun kemudian diberbagai tingkat pendidikan formal.
Tujuan dari tuntutan linguistik sekolah adalah untuk membantu para peneliti danguru untukmenarik perhatian lebih dalam organisasi tata bahasa dan wacana yang berbedadalam rangka untuk menemukan penggunaan tata bahasa (grammar)yang berbeda dalam konteks sekolah atau pendidikan.

Bibliography:

1. Hudson, R.A. Sociolinguistics .Cambridge: CUP.1980

2. http://mckayschooleducators.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/deficit-theory/

3. http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-5/basil-bernstein-on-restricted-and-elaborated-codes

4. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/basil_bernstein.htm

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics