Linguistic proficiency as cultural capital in school environments

• Authors: Angantýsson Ásgrímur

Title variants

PL

Umiejętności językowe jako kapitał kulturowy w środowisku szkolnym

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The main concern of this paper is the extent to which students’ expec-tations of first language studies reflect the idea that linguistic proficiency produces social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 2008 and earli-er work). The participants consisted of 14 focus groups of students in secondary schools in Iceland. Most of the students believe it is desirable to acquire fluency in reading and formal writing. In their view, however, the amount of time devoted to traditional school grammar is actually a detriment to that goal. Furthermore, the students think that success in Icelandic as a school subject depends to some extent on reading habits and language instruction at home. These views support the idea that schools tend to reward their students for knowledge and skills that are not necessarily highlighted in the class-room but which can be viewed as advantageous due to systematic cultural reproduction within families and social networks.

PL

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie w jakim zakresie oczekiwania uczniów w stosunku do uczenia się języka pierwszego odzwieciedlają przekonanie, że umiejętności jęzkowe produkują kapitał społeczny i kulturowy (Bourdieu 2008 i wcześniejsze prace). Uczestnikami badania było 14 grup fokusowych skupiających uczniów szkół średnich z Islandii. Większość uczniów uważa, że dobrze jest osiągnąć płynność w czytaniu i posługiwaniu się formalnym językiem pisanym. Ich zdaniem jednak czas poświęcany na uczenie się tradycyjnej gramatyki szkolnej stanowi przeszkodę w osięgnięciu celu. Co więcej, uczniowie są przekonani, że sukces w uczeniu się języka islandzkiego jako przedmiotu szkolnego w pewnym stopniu zależy od zwyczajów czytelniczych i języka używanego w domu. Te przekonania potwierdzają pogląd, że szkoła nagradza uczniów za wiedzę, która niekoniecznie jest wyeksponowana w klasie, ale która może być uważana za korzystną wskutek systematycznej reprodukcji kulturowej w rodzinach i sieciach społecznych.

Keywords

EN

cultural value; grammar teaching; Icelandic; linguistic capital; linguistic literacy

PL

język islandzki; kapitał językowy; nauczanie gramatyki; umiejętności językowe; wartość kulturowa

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Beyond Philology: An International Journal of Linguistics, Literary Studies and English Language Teaching
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 14/1
• Pages: 163-179

Dates

published

2017

Contributors

author

Angantýsson Ásgrímur

• University of Iceland

References

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Identifiers

ISSN

1732-1220

ISSN

2451-1498