The main key ideas presented by Bernstein in his theory of linguistic and communication codes contribute to the concept of a divide between classes in modern educational settings and within the sociology of education. He queries the impact that social class can have on children's attainment through dialectal differences in restricted and elaborated codes and the, "underlying relationship between the social division of labour, language socialization in families, and the education system. (Schwartz, 2002, p.554). This assignment will focus on his main points of argument to support this theory. I will also touch on the notions of other academics who support this and how these works are used to understand the way education is exercised today.
Bernstein's codes theory stated that, "between the school and community of the working-class child, there may exist a cultural discontinuity based upon two radically different systems of communication," (Bernstein, 1974, p.144) It was said there are two different language codes in operation within the setting of schooling. First, the restricted; vocabulary often constructed using simple and limiting language that relies on an already built foundation of understanding for the recipient of conversation and for them to make assumptions on what is not being explicitly verbalized. Therefore the second being elaborated codes, this is a more complex and overt structure to communication and allows meaning to be conveyed and understood by a wider collection of people who wouldn't necessarily have any background knowledge to be, "taken for granted." .
Following on from this, Bernstein speaks a lot about the relationship between the two codes and the class system. It is evident his main idea is that the middle class child can be seen as being able to retain both the elaborated and restricted codes, whereas, "children within sections of working class are expected to be limited to a restricted code," (Bernstein, 1971, p.
