Writing for the context

(For a history class on the civil rights movement)Stage one:

Teacher to her group of students: The date is 1955. Write down anything significant that happened in the 1950s (2 minute pause). Ok, now the setting is in Montgomery, Alabama. Write down anything you know about Alabama (2 minute pause). A bus comes down a wide street. An African American woman in her late 30s waits at the bus-stop and gets on the bus. What colour is this sky? Write about it. (2 minute pause). The woman sits down and the bus continues on. Someone else gets on the bus. Describe this person (2 minute pause). The bus driver says something to the African American woman. She replies “No. I’m staying here.” What had the bus driver said to her? Write it down. ………

Stage two:

After continuing this creative writing task for a little longer, the teacher reveals/elicits the event in which Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. The students should re-write the scene for homework. Later, they can discuss how this was a key moment in the Civil Rights movement and they can research the preparation for it by civil rights groups and activists.

Accessing the code

In this article some limitations of the i____________ popular theories of the R_________ semiotician L.S. Vygotsky will be identified. Emphasis will be placed on the lack of an account of s_________ positioning within discourse as well as the social, cultural and h________ production of discourse. At the heart of these concerns there lies an u___________ perspective on the social function of language, particularly when it is used to influence interpersonal relations. The theories of c_________ transmission developed by Basil Bernstein in the later stages of his career will be discussed in terms of the potential for refining the V____________ thesis.

2

In this article some limitations of the increasingly popular theories of the Russian semiotician L.S. Vygotsky will be identified. Emphasis will be placed on the lack of an account of social positioning within discourse as well as the social, cultural and historical production of discourse. At the heart of these concerns there lies an underdeveloped perspective on the social function of language, particularly when it is used to influence interpersonal relations. The theories of cultural transmission developed by Basil Bernstein in the later stages of his career will be discussed in terms of the potential for refining the Vygotskian thesis

Thank you for your attention

Name Jo EastlakeTeacher Trainer, Aberystwyth University

Language CenterMasaryk University

Komenského nám. 2, 601 77 Brnophone: +420 549 496 447 e-mail: cjv@rect.muni.czweb: http://lingua.muni.cz