Language and Learning
Britton, James N. Language and Learning. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1993. Print.
SummaryBritton examines his observations of how children shape their individual views of the world and shows how we use words to make practical and ethical sense of our surroundings. In this text, he expresses how children learn to talk, as well as the role of speech in both cognitive development and in coping with adolescence. Britton uses specific examples of actual speech and writing from his daughters.
He argues that humans represent things differently, thus, objects all have unique representations. Britton says that in order for humans to reason, we need language to assist us in creating representations of our experiences. ResponseBritton says, "Changes in the actual world must be followed by changes in our representation of it if they are to affect our expectations and, hence, our subsequent behaviour" (14). So, our constructed meanings can shift. This makes sense, as we go through life full of changing events (college, marriage, kids, moving, etc.). Such life changes cannot help but impact our own views on objects in the world. We don't live static lives, thus, our ways of thinking and being also shift over time based on these life events.
Britton writes, "In most of our traffic with words we look through the substance to the meaning" (78). I particularly love the use of the word traffic in this line as it illustrates exactly what the use of language feels like, particularly when in a group conversation with constant voices intermingling with one another. Britton so eloquently states, "The teacher's relationship with those he teaches cannot be sustained in a vacuum. The homes and neighbourhoods of the children must remain a part of their life when they come into school--which means that we cannot afford to have schools that stand aloof in the communities they serve" (188). This is my favorite quote from the text, as it serves as a reminder of the need for teachers to think about the value of community. Further, it highlights the value and vitality of the role of the teacher within a community. Britton writes, "Another child, growing up in another part of the world will divide experiences in a somewhat different way: he too is taking over, in general, the divisions embodied in his language, but it is in a different language" (24). This statement reminds me of the documentary, Babies (trailer below), which follows four humans through their first year after birth, from Namibia to Mongolia to the U.S. The film is focused on the babies and their interactions with the world (objects and language) around them. Connections/QuestionsBritton refers to Vygotsky, Volosinov, Bakhtin, Langer, and Cassirer in this text.
Britton is interested in the relationships between language and thought, thinking and feeling, and the symbolising nature of language--all concepts we've discussed in some way so far this semester. Britton references Vygotsky's concept of "speech for oneself" in chapter two. He says, "A child does not give up social forms of speech when he begins to use 'speech for himself'" (57). This also gets at the idea of language as social, which is a common theme among our readings this semester. Besides categorizing language, how do we use language to satisfy our own particular needs and purposes? Britton says that narrative speech is "speech that is not involved with action as it is in the running commentary" (69). This reminds me of Vygotsky's concept of inner speech. Britton does say that "'speech for oneself' incorporates narrative" (71). He adds that narrative speech develops "as a social activity" (71). Britton notes, "Language in use is a flow, a current of activity, and not any sort of reservoir" (163). Volosinov echoes this statement with his "language is an ever-flowing stream" (52) statement. |
Key Quotes
"We use language as a means of organizing a representation of the world ... the representation so created constitutes the world we operate in, the basis of all the predictions by which we set the course of our lives" (5).
"There are many kinds, many ways of representing the world to ourselves" (12).
"My storehouse, my representation of the world, in terms of the visual images of faces alone, is far, far richer than that, since faces I cannot recall would be familiar to me if I saw them again" (12).
"We habitually create representations of one kind or another of the things we meet in the actual world in order to use them in making sense of fresh encounters" (12-13).
"Language, as we see it, is only one way of symbolizing what is in the universe, and we cannot explain the particular ways of symbolizing what is in the universe, and we cannot explain the particular workings of language unless we see their relations with other ways of symbolizing and with the nature of the symbolizing process itself" (13).
"The world we respond to, in fact, the world towards which our behavior is directed, is the world as we symbolize it, or represent it to ourselves" (14).
"At the same time as we are drawing in from the outside world ... we are also projecting our own wishes, our hopes and fears and expectations about the world. Our representation of that situation is te resultant of the two processes, that of internalizing and that of externalizing" (14).
"What you project is a function of your personality (your mood of the moment as well as your habitual ways of feeling and thinking about things)" (14).
"There is on one hand my world representation--the accumulated record of my past experience--and there is on the other hand the process of representing to myself whatever of the world confronts me at any given moment" (15).
"My representation of the present moment, then, reflects both the mood I happen to be in and also more enduring features of my personality. My way of representing encounters with the actual builds up, over a period of time, to produce my 'world representation'" (15).
"Events take place and are gone: it is the representation that lasts and accumulates and undergoes successive modification. It is from the representation we make that we gain a sense of a continuing existence in a world that has a past and a future, a world that remains in existence whether we are there to prove it or not" (18).
"What remains in consciousness is there to go back to and modify in the light of the fresh encounter: it is a continuing sense of the world that is continually brought up to date" (18).
"The primary task for speech is to symbolize reality: we symbolize reality in order to handle it" (20).
"The objects of the world do not present themselves to us ready classified. The categories into which they are divided are categories into which we divide them" (23).
"Experience is kaleidoscopic: the experience of every moment is unique and unrepeatable" (26).
"Our world representation is a storehouse of the data of our experience" (28).
"What a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world" (38-39).
"Talk is used to support the speaker's activity within the situation" (64).
"The idea that learning is something you do sitting in a seat is a highly sophisticated notion and, to a young child, a very peculiar one" (128) ... "We can no longer regard school learning as simply an interim phase, a period of instruction and apprenticeship that marks the change from immaturity to maturity, from play in the nursery to work in the world. School learning must both build upon the learning of infancy and foster something that will continue and evolve throughout adult life" (129).
Language "is one way of representing or symbolizing our experience of the world" (135).
"What is important is the marriage of the process of composing in written language to that of reading, and the relating of both to the learner's spoken language resources" (159).
"We learn to interpret the various contributions that a given word may make to the meaning of an utterance" (163).
"Language in use is a flow, a current of activity, and not any sort of reservoir" (163).
"Transactional writing is writing in the role of participant fully differentiated to meet the requirements of that role: and poetic writing is fully differentiated to meet the requirements of the role of spectator" (174) ... "A reader 'contextualizes' transactional writing in the course of reading it--by segments, so to speak. Poetic writing is contextualized, not by segments but as a whole" (175).
"The teacher's relationship with those he teaches cannot be sustained in a vacuum. The homes and neighbourhoods of the children must remain a part of their life when they come into school--which means that we cannot afford to have schools that stand aloof in the communities they serve" (188).
"The human individual builds a cumulative representation of his interaction with his environment: this representation is a predictive apparatus--a store of expectations concerning what may happen to him next" (193).
"We cannot afford to underestimate the value of language as a means of organizing and consolidating our accumulated experience, or its value as a means of interacting with people and objects to create experience nor can we, on the other hand, afford to ignore the limits of its role in the total pattern of human behaviour" (319).
"There are many kinds, many ways of representing the world to ourselves" (12).
"My storehouse, my representation of the world, in terms of the visual images of faces alone, is far, far richer than that, since faces I cannot recall would be familiar to me if I saw them again" (12).
"We habitually create representations of one kind or another of the things we meet in the actual world in order to use them in making sense of fresh encounters" (12-13).
"Language, as we see it, is only one way of symbolizing what is in the universe, and we cannot explain the particular ways of symbolizing what is in the universe, and we cannot explain the particular workings of language unless we see their relations with other ways of symbolizing and with the nature of the symbolizing process itself" (13).
"The world we respond to, in fact, the world towards which our behavior is directed, is the world as we symbolize it, or represent it to ourselves" (14).
"At the same time as we are drawing in from the outside world ... we are also projecting our own wishes, our hopes and fears and expectations about the world. Our representation of that situation is te resultant of the two processes, that of internalizing and that of externalizing" (14).
"What you project is a function of your personality (your mood of the moment as well as your habitual ways of feeling and thinking about things)" (14).
"There is on one hand my world representation--the accumulated record of my past experience--and there is on the other hand the process of representing to myself whatever of the world confronts me at any given moment" (15).
"My representation of the present moment, then, reflects both the mood I happen to be in and also more enduring features of my personality. My way of representing encounters with the actual builds up, over a period of time, to produce my 'world representation'" (15).
"Events take place and are gone: it is the representation that lasts and accumulates and undergoes successive modification. It is from the representation we make that we gain a sense of a continuing existence in a world that has a past and a future, a world that remains in existence whether we are there to prove it or not" (18).
"What remains in consciousness is there to go back to and modify in the light of the fresh encounter: it is a continuing sense of the world that is continually brought up to date" (18).
"The primary task for speech is to symbolize reality: we symbolize reality in order to handle it" (20).
"The objects of the world do not present themselves to us ready classified. The categories into which they are divided are categories into which we divide them" (23).
"Experience is kaleidoscopic: the experience of every moment is unique and unrepeatable" (26).
"Our world representation is a storehouse of the data of our experience" (28).
"What a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world" (38-39).
"Talk is used to support the speaker's activity within the situation" (64).
"The idea that learning is something you do sitting in a seat is a highly sophisticated notion and, to a young child, a very peculiar one" (128) ... "We can no longer regard school learning as simply an interim phase, a period of instruction and apprenticeship that marks the change from immaturity to maturity, from play in the nursery to work in the world. School learning must both build upon the learning of infancy and foster something that will continue and evolve throughout adult life" (129).
Language "is one way of representing or symbolizing our experience of the world" (135).
"What is important is the marriage of the process of composing in written language to that of reading, and the relating of both to the learner's spoken language resources" (159).
"We learn to interpret the various contributions that a given word may make to the meaning of an utterance" (163).
"Language in use is a flow, a current of activity, and not any sort of reservoir" (163).
"Transactional writing is writing in the role of participant fully differentiated to meet the requirements of that role: and poetic writing is fully differentiated to meet the requirements of the role of spectator" (174) ... "A reader 'contextualizes' transactional writing in the course of reading it--by segments, so to speak. Poetic writing is contextualized, not by segments but as a whole" (175).
"The teacher's relationship with those he teaches cannot be sustained in a vacuum. The homes and neighbourhoods of the children must remain a part of their life when they come into school--which means that we cannot afford to have schools that stand aloof in the communities they serve" (188).
"The human individual builds a cumulative representation of his interaction with his environment: this representation is a predictive apparatus--a store of expectations concerning what may happen to him next" (193).
"We cannot afford to underestimate the value of language as a means of organizing and consolidating our accumulated experience, or its value as a means of interacting with people and objects to create experience nor can we, on the other hand, afford to ignore the limits of its role in the total pattern of human behaviour" (319).