The first paper focuses on the study of British working class speech, and highlights research on the topic. It is suggested that a culture is identified through its organizing concept, and that it is necessary to determine how far culture is linguistic. The conclusion is drawn that it is not possible to make fundamental correlations between…

Examines the effects of linguistic and cultural diversity on the educational achievement of working class and minority students by reappraising the deficit/difference controversy of the 1960s and 1970s and examines how class and politics shape both cultural-linguistic and school-based assumptions about language and literacy. (Author/BJV)

Using a comparative and historical approach, this paper examines linguistic perspectives on minority education, specifically language-based explanations for the reading problems of working class minority group students. The paper first discusses the ways in which competence and performance theories of language treat the relation between language…