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PSY/SPAU 4V90.

002

Seminar in Language Development: Language and Literacy Socialization

Fall 2005

Instructor: Anne van Kleeck, Ph.D. e-mail: annevk@utdallas.edu


Phone: 214-905-3147 Callier Dallas (voice mail) Office: Callier-Dallas A101
972-883-3604 Callier Richardson (don’t use this voice mail) Callier-Richardson 1.534
Class Time: 12:30 – 2:45 Thursday Class Location: Callier-Richardson Room 1.212
Office hours: Thursday 10:30 AM – 11:30, Callier Richardson Office
Monday 4:00 – 5:00 PM, Callier-Dallas Office
Other times by appointment

Description:

Children’s language development involves learning the sounds, words, and grammatical systems, which they have mastered to an impressive
extent as early as three years of age. Most courses in language development focus on this unfolding. Less often emphasized is how that basic
linguistic knowledge is put to use, and the extent to which cultural practices determine the patterns of language use children are socialized to
use. Focusing on children’s language socialization illuminates the expression, “It ain’t what you got, but what you do with it.” In the end, what
children can do with the language skills they have seems to be far more important – at least in terms of school success – than what they
know.

In this course we will explore children’s language and literacy socialization from two different perspectives. First, children’s socialization in
school and about school and learning will be explored. Ne xt we will delve into the language and literacy socialization of young children in their
homes prior to formal schooling. We will examine the socialization practices of various cultures, including European Americans, African
Americans, Latin Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, low socio-economic groups, and others. Ways in which broader cultural
attitudes and beliefs affect the style and content of interaction (the primary mechanism for socialization) in both home and school contexts
will provide the backdrop for our inquiry.

Overall Goals of Course:

Content goals:

The major aim of the course will be to examine how language and literacy experiences in the home may differentially prepare students for
school success, and how practices in schools (reflecting those of the broader society) may sometimes exacerbate, rather than serve to
neutralize, those differences. Our analyses will be launched by selected cross-cultural research and scholarship, including original empirical
studies. Historical pers pectives on literacy development will be reviewed to shed light on how values and practices change (and often re-
emerge) over time as well as across cultures.

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Skill goals:

Other goals of the course extend beyond the specific focus on children’s language and literacy socialization, and include fostering each
student’s further development of critical thinking and writing skills.

General University Guidelines:

• Students with documented special needs or disabilities, please see me during the first two weeks of classes to discuss and plan any
necessary modifications or accommodations. Please contact UTD Disability Services if you need additional information:
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/hcsvc.html
• Students who need help with study skills, or additional help with basic writing skills are encouraged to seek assistance at the UTD
Learning Resources Center: http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/ugraddean/lrc.html
• All academic work must meet the standards for academic honesty. Each student is responsible for being aware of these standards
before performing any academic work. Refer to the web page for details: http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html
• If religious holidays interfere with your attendance or turning in an assignment, it is essential to let me know at least one week ahead
of time and to make arrangements to have assignments turned in before your absence (e.g., October 13 th is Yom Kippur).
• Please refer to your current 2004-2006 UTD Undergraduate Catalog for details regarding drop/add
(www.utdallas.edu/student/catalog/ undergrad04/policies-dropadd.html), course withdrawal policies and procedures, and any other
general UTD academic policies. Note in particular date deadlines for dropping a class.

Specific Course Guidelines:

• Since this is a seminar and meets only once per week, class attendance is critically important and hence required. Attendance
requires arriving on time and staying until the scheduled ending time of class. For documented personal emergencies or religious
holidays only, you will be allowed one absence in the semester.
• Please remember to turn off cell phones. If you know you may need to be reached in an emergency, please use the silent options on
your phone and leave the classroom to answer the call. I’d also appreciate your letting me know me prior to the start of class time
that you will have your phone on.
• Assignments are due at the BEGINNING of class. In cases of illnesses, emergencies, or religious holidays, please contact me via e-
mail before class and arrange to have any assignments due turned in by a classmate.
• Please use APA style in your writing (see for example, how to cite references, and the specific ways to avoid using sexist language).
Some possibly helpful websites include: http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/apa4b.htm; http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/index.htm;
http://www.psychwww.com/resource/apacrib.htm
• If you do not understand the reason you received a specific grade on any assignment, I definitely want you to talk with me about it.
If you believe a grade should be reconsidered, take time to review my comments about your work and follow these instructions:
1. Please wait at least 24 hours after you received the grade, but no more than one week to respond to me in writing about it.
2. Submit to me your carefully reasoned written explanation (minimum of one page, and maximum of two pages) of why you
believe you deserve more credit than you received on a particular assignment (why your response was a valid one), including

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cited references where relevant. Please specify the amount of credit you think you deserve. Attach the original evaluation to
your memo.
3. I will carefully consider your request, and will contact you via e-mail within one week with my decision about your request.
You may, of course, also come and speak to me in person about the matter after you have received my decision.
• Please feel free to drop in during office hours to ask questions, or discuss any concerns regarding the class. If the posted times are
not possible for you, other meeting times can be scheduled by appointment. The easiest way to reach me is probably by e-mail, which
I usually check at least once a day.

Course Requirements:

This is a seminar course. Thus, while I will lecture occasionally to provide background material for the readings, the majority of the class time
will be spent discussing the readings due for that particular day. Discussion topics will be generated by you, and be based upon questions and
interests raised during your preparatory reading for class. I therefore expect everyone to do the readings and to come to the class prepared
to participate in class discussions.

1. Written weekly commentary on an excerpt from one of the readings assigned for that week that is in some way noteworthy from your
perspective (problematic, enigmatic, controversia l, compelling, or newly thought-provoking). After reproducing the excerpt, articulate
the issue you had with the passage and suggest a research strategy or perspective that might shed further light on it. Seminar
participants will be called upon to lead the class discussion based on these commentaries. These commentaries should be a maximum
of 500 words total, excluding the reproduced excerpts (use Times, 12 point, double -spaced – about 1.5 to 2 pages). Students
need to have their own copies of the readings due for that class with them in class to aid in class discussion. An extra copy of these
commentaries, in addition to the copy to be used for class discussion, will be turned in at the beginning of each class meeting.
2. For the other reading(s) for each week, list five things you learned that you felt were important and very briefly state why (or were
provoked to think about, disagree with, thought were expressed in a particularly compelling manner, etc.). Turn in one hard copy at
the beginning of class, and have one extra hard copy with you in class. You are free to discuss readings with each other outside of
class; however, you are expected to turn in your own commentaries and list of things learned from each reading.
3. Class participation will be graded on the basis of arriving on time and attending class regularly, turning in weekly commentaries and
lists of important points learned, bringing that day’s readings and extra copy of your commentaries and lists, and actively
participating in class discussion in a manner that demonstrates that you have thoughtfully prepared for class.
4. View the movie “Crash” (2005) in class (www.crashfilm.com) and write a five to seven page, double -spaced (Times, 12 point) paper
on the s tereotyped attitudes (even unconscious ones) it illustrates.

Assignments comprising final grade (percentage of final grade of each):

1. Written weekly commentaries and list of points learned about readings: Each commentary/set of points learned will receive a
maximum of 5 points based on both the writing and the content: There will be 13 of them and each will count as 5% of your final
grade, for a total of 65%.
2. Class participation: 25%
3. Brief paper on “Crash:” 10%

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Readings are available in two places:

1. Highlighted readings are available for you to download from the UTD Blackboard Website. The Blackboard downloading was done
in an effort to give you substantial cost savings for copying, particularly for the royalty fees that must be charged on copying.
This was done for all the readings it was possible to get from our UTD library subscriptions. Go to http://blackboard.utdallas.edu.
Login and use the “Forgot your password?” button to create a password. Click “Special Topics in Speech-Language Pathology and
Audiology” under your personal course listing. Under “Course Information” you will find a pdf you can download with the reading
bibliography for the class. If you have difficulty downloading and are on a Mac, hold down the “control” key on your keyboard
and then click the icon for the pdf in Blackboard. On a PC, use the “right click” button on the link, and select “save target as,”
and then save it to your desktop. Under “Course Documents” you will find a pdf for each class reading that is highlighted below.

2. Other readings are in a course packet that costs $99.50 and is available at:

Off Campus Books


581 W. Campbell Road, #101
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone: (972) 907-8398

Reading and class discussion schedule:

Date Topic Readings/Assignments Due

August 18 Introductions; Plans for course

Socialization in and about school:

25 The value of school and literacy Ogbu, 1990 (24 pages)


Gee, 1996, Chapter 2 (24 pages)

Different views of intelligence: An example from Empirical: Li, 2002 (18 pages)
Chinese students 66 pages

September 1 Differential treatment of children in school Panofsky, 2003 (19 pages)


Take www.tolerance.org;
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
A comparison of preschool programs in the United
States Empirical: McGill-Franzen & Adams, 2002 (20 pages)

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Quranic preschooling in Morocco Empirical: Wagner & Spratt, 1987 (11 pages)

50 pages
8 Why schools? Embedding vs. segregating children Rogoff, 2003, Chapter 4
from the adult community 48 pages
15 Thinking with the tools and institutions of culture Rogoff, 2003, Chapter 7 (46 pages)

Brenner & Parks, 2001 (5 pages)


51 pages
22 Discourse in classrooms Reid, 2000 (31 pages)

Empirical: Torr, 2004 (26 pages)


57 pages
29 Historical and current perspectives on literacy van Kleeck, manuscript in preparation
learning and early schooling
31 pages
Language socialization in the home:

October 6 Conversational socialization Van Kleeck, 1994 (10 pages)

Beliefs and practices among Chinese mothers Empirical: Johnston & Wong, 2002 (8 pages)

African-American mothers’ views of language Empirical: Hammer & Weiss, 2000 (13 pages)
development

Socio-economic issues in an historical perspective Bernstein, 1970 (34 pages)


65 pages
13 Amount of input and children’s language growth Empirical: Huttenlocher, 1998 (4 pages)

Empirical: Hart & Risley, 1995, Chapter 6 & 7 (49


pages)
53 pages
20 Cultural differences in narrative structure and content Westby, 1994 (34 pages)

African-American children’s narratives Bloome et al., 2001, (29 pages)


63 pages
27 Personal narratives used with and by middle-class Empirical: Miller et al., 1997 (10 pages)

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American and Chinese preschoolers
Empirical: Miller et al., 1996 (39 pages)
49 pages
Early literacy socialization in the home:

November 3 African-American families Empirical: Heath, 1982 (27 pages)


Heath, 1989 (6 pages)

Hammer, 2001 (22 pages)


55pages
10 Britto & Brooks-Gunn, 2001 (13 pages)

Delpit, 1992 (6 pages)

Latino families Hammer & Miccio, 2004 (21 pages)

Low-income families Storch & Whitehurst, 2001 (16 pages)


56 pages
17 “Crash” discussion View movie “Crash” and write brief paper
24 Empirical: Neuman et al., 1995 (23 pages)

Anglo Middle -Class families Empirical: Hammett, van Kleeck, & Huberty 2003 (23
pages)
46 pages

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