Shirley Brice Heath’s Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms – Part 4
The “townspeople” in Trackton and Roadville “[were] mainstreamers, people who [saw] themselves as being in ‘the mainstream of things’” (p. 236). The way that Roadville and Trackton residents recognized unfamiliar townspeople was by their “clothes, bearing, speech, and habits of talking” (p. 236).
Heath says, “Townspeople [were] strongly school-oriented, believing success in school, academically and socially, [was] a prerequisite for being successful as an adult” (p. 236).
The two distinct groups that lived in Roadville and Trackton communities were labeled “oldtimers and newcomers” (p. 237). While the oldtimers “[appeared] [not] to fear the changes newcomers might bring to the region,” they also wanted such changes “to come with as little disruption to local habits and institutions as possible” (p. 238).
In terms of what “[announced] the good life in the region,” things such as “[c]alm city politics, safe and clean streets, adequate recreational facilities, and interstate highways to major metropolitan centers” were factors. “White townspeople are particularly verbal about the need to include good schools” (pp.238-39).
Heath claims, “White and black mainstream families also [located] themselves within a fifteen-mile radius of the city on pieces of land which had been in the family for decades” (p. 241). The “[y]ounger black and white mainstream couples who [did] not yet have children” chose to live in “apartments or condominia in Alberta, which [offered] far more entertainment possibilities than surrounding towns” (p. 241).
Townspeople sought to improve themselves with “continuing education at the advanced-degree level in ways similar to service in a voluntary association: a social occasion which [helped] one’s self and public image” (p. 245).
“Talking [was] of critical importance,” and “[m]ainstream grandparents often [told] stories about how their children came to talk like their maids, either adopting certain terms for things or using their pronunciation and syntax” (p. 247). In this sense, “[m]uch of the physical and verbal environment of babies [was] oriented to literate sources, and from an early age, children [were] expected to take an interest in books and information derived from books” (p. 247).
Mothers communicated with their babies, interpreting their responses “in intentional and representational terms” (p. 248). Essentially, mothers used this approach to determine their baby’s “[utterances] as they [believed] the infant intended it, acknowledging that though the infant [was] not old enough to say what he [intended], he [was] capable of having intentions which [could] be interpreted by others” (p. 248).
In terms of communication, mothers would continue with “their question-answer routines when the children [began] to talk and add to them running narratives on items and events in the environment” (p. 249). Townspeople encouraged their children to make up and share their stories (pp. 250-53).
Listening was an important skill for children (pp.253-55). Heath confides, “Children [learned] in book-reading exchanges to name, hold, and retrieve content from books and other written or printed texts” (p.256).
“[Labeled] procedures and what-explanations [were] used in the classification and construction of knowledge, when children and adults [responded] to new items in their environment and [built] running commentaries on old items as they [compared] their features to new ones,” Heath says (p. 256).
Heath describes the types of reading and writing in townspeople’s homes:
Types of uses of reading in townspeople’s homes Types of uses of writing in townspeople’s homes
• Instrumental – “Reading to gain information for practical needs and scheduling daily life”
• News-related – “Reading to gain information about third parties or distant events”
• Recreational – “Reading during leisure time or planning for recreational events”
• Critical/Educational – “Reading to increase one’s abilities to consider and/or discuss political, social, aesthetic, or religious knowledge”
• Social/Educational – “Reading to gain information pertinent to social relationships”
• Confirmational – “Reading to check or confirm facts or beliefs often from archival materials stored and retrieved only on special occasions” (p. 258)
Types of uses of writing in townspeople’s homes
• Memory aids – “Writing to serve as a memory aid for both the writer and others”
• Reinforcement or substitutes for oral messages – “Writing used when direct oral communication was not possible or a written message was needed for legal purposes”
• Social-interactional – “Writing to give information pertinent to social relationships or parental role responsibilities”
• Financial – “Writing to record numerals and to write out amounts and purposes of expenditures, and for signatures”
• Expository – “Occasional tasks brought home from the job or church and civic duties … used to summarize generalizations and as a back-up for other people … [the] writer envisions or ‘knows’ the audience and attempts to include only those definitions and facts believed not to be known to the addressee…” (p. 259)
There were different “types of writing,” which included various levels of revision before producing the “finished product,” some types were “one-time only,” used as “reminders,” and some types “of writing required particular types of paper and writing instruments: notes and lists could be written on the backs of old envelopes or notebook paper with pencil; party invitations, business letters, and personal letters required pen and ink and special paper” (pp.258-60).
The townspeople perceived writing as part of their functional literacy (pp. 261-62). Heath states, “Townspeople [carried] with them, as an unconsciousness part of their self-identity, these numerous subtle and covert norms, habits, and values about reading, writing, and speaking about written materials” (p. 262).
The townspeople “[believed] their ways of talking about what [was] written and responding to the content of written materials [would] impart to their young the necessary skills for achieving school and job success” (p. 262).
Reference
Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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