The Meaning Makers: Learning to Talk and Talking to Learn / Edition 2

by Gordon Wells

Overview

The Meaning Makers is about children’s language and literacy development at home and at school. Based on the Bristol Study, “Language at Home and at School,” which the author directed, it follows the development of a representative sample of children from their first words to the end of their primary schooling. It contains many examples of their experience of language in use, both spoken and written, recorded in naturally occurring settings in their homes and classrooms, and shows the active role that children play in their own development as they both make sense of the world around them and master the linguistic means for communicating about it. Additionally, this second edition also sets the findings of the original study in the context of recent research in the sociocultural tradition inspired by Vygotsky’s work and includes examples of effective teaching drawn from the author’s recent collaborative research with teachers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847691989
Publisher:	Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Publication date:	08/15/2009
Series:	NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION Series , #15
Edition description:	2nd edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Gordon Wells is currently Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he researches and teaches in the fields of: language, literacy, and learning; the analysis of classroom interaction; and sociocultural theory. As an educator, his particular interest is in fostering dialogic inquiry as an approach to learning and teaching at all levels, based on the work of Vygotsky and other sociocultural theorists. The rationale for this approach together with examples of it in practice are presented in Dialogic inquiry: Towards a Sociocultural Practice and Theory of Education (Cambridge University Press, 1999). From 1969 to 1984, he was the Director of the Bristol Study of Language Development at Home and at School, and from 1984 to 2000, he was a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, where he was involved in several collaborative action research projects with educational practitioners in Canada. Chief among these was a project entitled “Developing Inquiring Communities in Education” (DICEP), which was funded by the Spencer Foundation. Books arising from this work are Constructing Knowledge Together (Heinemann, 1992), Changing Schools from Within (OISE Press and Heinemann, 1994), and Action, Talk and Text: Learning and Teaching through Inquiry, written with his DICEP teacher colleagues, (Teachers College Press, 2001). He is also co-editor of Learning for Life in the 21st Century: Sociocultural Perspectives on the Future of Education (Blackwell, 2002).

Read an Excerpt

The Meaning Makers

Learning to Talk and Talking to Learn

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By Gordon Wells

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2009 Gordon Wells
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84769-927-5

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CHAPTER 1

The Children and Their Families

'It's half past nine. Where's Rosie?]' 'She got a knife in her hands, Dad' 'Oh, my God!'

This was our first meeting with Rosie. Up to that point unnoticed, as she sat quietly under the table playing with a knife, she became briefly the focus of attention. Then, the knife removed, she was left once again to her own devices.

Rosie

It was shortly after breakfast on 27 July 1973, and we were making our first observation of Rosie. But an observation with a difference. The only evidence of our interest in Rosie was a slight bulge under her dress at the front and a rather larger hump between her shoulders at the back. This was the bugging device – a pair of miniature microphones and a battery-operated radio transmitter – left in her home on the previous afternoon. Her elder brother and sisters were naturally intrigued. A little later, when Rosie had fallen asleep on the sofa, Kelvin (age eight) and his friend Mike took a closer look.

Mike: What's it connected to? her ears or her mouth?

Mother: Eh? No, she just got it on . she got a square thing over her shoulders and round to the back

Kelvin: Mike, look at this . there it is . look

Mother: The round thing there is the microphone

Mike: How does the noise come out, then, if it ain't in her mouth?

Mother: I don't know . you see there's a wire going over there and a wire going over that side

Mike: Is there a wire in her mouth?

Mother: No . there's another microphone there . when she speaks it goes on that recorder in there [pointing to a box in the corner of the room]

Mike: Can you hear her speak?

Mother: No . they're coming tonight to play it back ... and if there's anything comes out what we wants rubbed off, they'll rub it off

Like most of the children, at 15 months Rosie wasn't saying much that we could interpret with confidence. She also slept for quite a lot of the day. But this first recording gave the family an opportunity to get used to having the recorder in their home (there were very few references to the equipment on subsequent recordings). It also gave us our first glimpse of them and of their relationships with each other.

Rosie and her family lived in the inner city in a small terrace house built in the year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. Father, a labourer, was not regularly employed and spent most of his time around the house. So, with two adults and five children – ranging from Kelvin, age eight, to Donna, only a year older than Rosie – as well as a large dog, there was not much space in the house when all of them were at home. With little money, providing for the children was a fairly constant preoccupation and so, although they were clearly fond of Rosie and concerned for her welfare, her parents did not find time to give her a great deal of individual attention. As she grew older, however, her brother and elder sisters included her in their activities, and by the time she went to school, she and Donna were almost inseparable.

Abigail

Abigail, whom we first met a few weeks later, was another child with several older siblings. She, however, lived on the other side of the city centre in a spacious four-floor house in a Regency terrace with a large garden. Like Rosie, though, she tended to get overlooked when all the family was at home – at least until she had learned to take part in the conversation. On one occasion, her mother found her in one of her sisters' bedrooms, playing alone with materials for tie-and-dye.

Abigail: [asking about the bottles of dye] What's those?

Mother: Did you take anything out?

Abigail: Yeh

Mother: [under her breath] Oh, my God ... oh, Christ . [then, to Abigail] open your mouth

Fortunately, it was a false alarm. Abigail had not tried to drink the dye.

What both these narrow escapes illustrate (though more dramatically than usual) is just how much of parental speech to the one- to two-year-old is likely to be concerned with the child's safety and welfare, particularly when, with older and more verbal children competing for their attention, parents only notice what the youngest is up to when the damage is done. In fact, for many of the children at this age, controlling utterances, together with exclamations and endearments, provided the majority of the speech addressed to them. While Mother is talking to Rosanna, Abigail has gone into the garden with no shoes on and stepped in a puddle.

Abigail: [shouts with glee]

Mother: [looking out of the door] Oh, Abby! for goodness sake! . you've come out in your tights after I've just dressed you . taken ages to get you ready

[She picks Abigail up, takes her inside, and returns to her conversation with Rosanna.]

Notice, though, that such controlling utterances can also provide quite a lot of information about the way things are – or, perhaps, about the way they should or should not be. As we eavesdropped on these families, we came to realize very clearly that learning to talk is just one facet (albeit probably the most important one) of learning to be a member of a particular culture, with all the taken-for-granted assumptions of what is important, what is approved or disapproved of, and what that entails. Here is another example.

Abigail, now 21 months old, has been to the supermarket with her mother. On the way home, Abigail has been exploring the box of groceries and has found a packet of stock cubes. She is now sucking one of them.

Abigail: *

Mother: Oh, yucky! . oh, where's the packet gone, darling? [No response, as Abigail continues to suck the cube.]

Mother: It's for cooking, sweetheart . look, it's for putting in a cooking pot to make a stew

Abigail's parents, both professional people, were involved in a Franco-British society and, on several of the occasions when we observed her, there were young French people staying in the house. This led to many interesting conversations about places and customs that the visitors had remarked on or that were drawn to their attention. Thanks to her microphone, we were able to eavesdrop on these conversations, just as Abigail was. What she made of them we cannot tell, but there is no doubt that, compared with many other children, the range of language to which she was exposed as a listener was extremely wide and varied.

By 24 months, Abigail had acquired sufficient linguistic resources to begin to join in the conversation, provided the other person gave her his or her full attention. In the following extract, she was talking with her father about the jigsaw puzzle that they were doing together.

Abigail: [referring to a figure in the puzzle] Mummy

Father: [confirming] That's Mummy . and who's that?

Abigail: Man

Father: Very good .. and who's that?

Abigail: Bike

Father: Bicycle

Abigail: Bicycle

Father: And that?

Abigail: And car

Father: And a car .. oh, look!

Abigail: Man

Father: Lots of men

Three months later, she was well on her way to mastering the adult language. In the following extract, we find her alone with her mother, engaged in drawing and colouring.

Abigail: There Teddy . there 'tis

Mother: Is that your teddy?

Abigail: Yes it is

Mother: Do you want to draw a teddy?

Abigail: [referring to a crayon] I have that one

Mother: Can I colour him in with that one?

Abigail: Yeh

Mother: Oh no, it won't colour . can I have another colour to colour him in?

Abigail: Yeh . have that one [handing her a crayon]

Mother: A brown teddy . oh, that one's nearly gone too [nearly worn out]

Abigail: Green one . can I have green one? [Whispers to self] We haven't done green .. greeny one . purple, green . [softly to self] we haven't got green one . [addressing mother again] those are too big!

Gary

Our first impression of Gary was of a child with a healthy appetite – perhaps because much of his parent's speech to him during the first two observations was about food. The following extract comes from the second, at 18 months.

Gary: [crying] Look

Father: What do you want?

Mother: Come here

Gary: [wanting to look in the cupboard] Look

[Father lifts him up to the cupboard at which he's pointing. Gary takes out the biscuit (cookie) tin.]

Father: [to Mother, amused] Hey, Joyce, look! [To Gary] That what you wants?

Gary: Uh [yes]

Father: What d'you want?

Gary: [taking a handful of biscuits] That

Father: He don't take one [only one]

Mother: He got to take two

Father: [to Mother]: Yes [To Gary] All right?

Gary: Uh [yes]

Father: Get down?

Gary: Uh

[Father puts him down, the biscuit still in reach. Mother and Father talk together for a minute.]

Gary: Hey, Dada! look! [Gary gives one biscuit each to Mother and Father and has two left in his hand.]

Father: Is that one for Sandra? [his sister]

Gary: Mm [Makes no attempt to give it to her.]

Father: How come you got two?

Gary: [running off] Ha!

Gary's sister was just under two years older than him and, like the other two children we have met, he was often overshadowed by her – at least to begin with – and there were many minor tiffs. But they also played happily together, as in the following extract, when Gary was 27 months. Gary and Sandra are pretending to go shopping.

Mother: Where is you going?

Gary: Going up the shops

Mother: All right

Sandra: [to Mother] I won't be late [To Gary] Right, get in the car then

Gary: All right

Sandra: [with a sudden change of plan] We're going to be married now

Gary: Here comes the bride

Sandra: Here comes the bride [They continue, shouting together.]

Gary's father was a diesel engine mechanic and his working hours meant that he was quite often at home during the day. He would spend some of this time in his garage, working on his car or motor bike. Gary often went to 'help' him, playing with the tools and 'mending' his favourite toys, a tractor and a pedal car. But he also enjoyed helping his mother, as in the following extract, at 33 months, when Mother was doing the ironing.

Gary: [referring to the nylon thread that he is using as his washing line] I break it, Mummy

Mother: No, you won't be able to . it's nylon

Gary: Why, Mum?

Mother: No, you won't be able to break it, Gary . that's to hang your washing on

Gary: Oh What- what have you got there? [asking about what Mother is ironing]

Mother: Mm?

Gary: Hang my washing out . that's my washing line, isn't it? I can put some clothes on there, can't I?

Mother: All right

Gary: I'm going to put some clothes on there [he hangs up some hankies] hang them up .. I shall hang them up

This was the longest conversation that Gary had had up to this point in our observations, and it is significant, I think, that it took place when he was 'helping' his mother with the ironing. Parents are busy, most of the day, with the routine business of running the household; only a minority in our study took time to play with their children, joining in the children's activities. From time to time, of course, they would ask about or comment on what the child was doing, or respond to requests for help. But such conversations were, on the whole, brief and undeveloped. When a mother or father had the time and patience to allow the child to become engaged in her or his adult activities, on the other hand, quite long and interesting conversations often occurred.

There are two reasons for this, I suspect. On the one hand, children have a natural desire to try out those adult activities that they understand (as we see in the sort of role play illustrated above in the shopping episode), and talking about them is one of the ways in which they come to understand them better. And, on the other hand, from the adult's point of view, the purposefulness of the task gives purpose to the conversation. Under these conditions, children's questions and observations are more easily understood and hence are more likely to receive more satisfying responses.

Penny

While Gary liked best to help his Dad (when he was allowed to), Penny was from an early age a regular little housewife. Here she is at 24 months. Father, a firefighter just returned from work, is having his dinner in the front room, and Penny is running to and fro from the kitchen to serve him.

Penny: I've got more dinner

Father: Get a piece of bread and butter, please

Penny: Want some bread and butter?

Father: Yes, to put over these

Penny: [running into kitchen] Me going to get bread

Mother: He's a nuisance . he ought to have done it himself . he's lazy

Penny: I take in Daddy's bread . Daddy wants some tea?

Mother: I expect so . here you are . go and give that to Daddy

[Penny runs into the front room and gives bread to her father]

Father: Thank you

Of all the children introduced so far, Penny was the most linguistically advanced when we first met her at 15 months. This was the very first interchange on the tape. Penny is playing with a clock.

Mother: Oh-oh-oh! what's that?

Penny: Tick-tock

Mother: It's a tick-tock

No child was so obviously into the 'naming game' as Penny, as both she and her mother asked and answered the question 'What's that!' about household objects and pictures in a mail-order catalogue. At 18 months, looking at a picture book of clocks and watches, her mother encouraged her to count, which she did, somewhat erratically:

Mother: One, two, ...

Penny: Three

Mother: Three, four, five ...

Penny: Six, seven, ten

Mother: [firmly] Seven, eight ...

Penny: Ten

At the same age, she pretended to read a picture book by herself, while her mother was busy in the kitchen. Surprisingly, though, we never heard anybody read a story to her. Penny, too, had older siblings: two brothers, five and six years older than her. However, her situation was very different from that of the other children we have so far considered, for the two boys spent much of their time playing with their friends and were much less frequently competing with Penny for their parents' attention. Indeed, although not spoiled, she was quite obviously the whole family's pride and joy, and they all enjoyed playing and talking with her. The following extract comes from the recording already quoted above, just after her father had finished his dinner. Penny is playing with her teddy, which is in her doll's pram (carriage).

Penny: Teddy isn't * * [two unintelligible words]

Father: Eh? Teddy isn't what?

Penny: Er ... [sighs]

Father: All right now?

Penny: Yeh

Father: Is he in the pram?

Penny: Yeh

Father: Good . put the blanket over him, then

[Penny covers Teddy with the blanket.]

Father: Not over his face . he won't be able to see

Penny: Come on, Teddy

Father: Want me to do it?

Penny: Yeh

Father: [whispers] All right

Penny: [shouts to Sam?, the dog] Stay there!

Father: Shh!

Penny: Shh!

Father: [referring to Teddy] He's going night-nights . say 'Night-night, Teddy'

Penny: Night-night, Teddy

[Penny wheels the pram into the kitchen.]

Penny: He asleep, Mummy

Mother: Who?

Penny: Teddy . he's a bad

Mother: Bad, is he? Oh, poor Teddy!

Penny: He's got a bad leg

Mother: Oh, poor Teddy!

The other striking characteristic of Penny's family life was the constant stream of visitors: relatives, friends, neighbours and their children. Not a single observation passed without at least one visitor calling for an hour or two. A friendly, vivacious child, Penny benefited enormously from this wide range of playmates and conversational partners. In other homes, however, the effect of visitors could be very different. Some mothers, of course, invited friends with children, in order to ensure that their own children had friends of the same age to play with, and the adults would keep a watchful eye on them while they drank a cup of tea or coffee, occasionally entering into the children's play. Others, though, were so relieved to have another adult to talk to that they resented any interruption from the child. Already short of adult conversation, Rosie, for example, would be almost completely ignored while a visitor was in the house.

Anthony

This sometimes seemed to be the case with Anthony, the only child of somewhat older parents. Mother had had a management position in a large company before Anthony was born and, although she was obviously very fond of him, she sometimes seemed to find the continuous company of a young child rather irksome.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Meaning Makers by Gordon Wells. Copyright © 2009 Gordon Wells. Excerpted by permission of Multilingual Matters.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Children and Their Families

Chapter 2 Learning to Talk: The Pattern of Development

Chapter 3 Learning to Talk: The Construction of Language

Chapter 4 Talking to Learn

Chapter 5 From Home to School

Chapter 6 Helping Children to Make Knowledge Their Own

Chapter 7 Differences between Children in Language and Learning

Chapter 8 The Centrality of Literacy

Chapter 9 The Children's Achievement at Age 10

Chapter 10 The Sense of Story

Chapter 11 A Functional Theory of Language Development

Chapter 12 Towards Dialogue in the Classroom

Chapter 13 The Interdependence of Practice and Theory

Editorial Reviews

In the first edition of The Meaning Makers, Gordon Wells used a wealth of observational data to demonstrate the importance of talk with adults for children's learning and development. The book worked especially well because it included the voices of the children and adults in its many illustrative examples. This new edition not only links the original analysis to recent research and contemporary educational issues, but also provides fascinating insights into the changing perspectives of a researcher over the span of a highly productive, international career.

Neil Mercer