As I read Bourdieu over the last several days (in intense hour increments) I was reminded of an activity that I do with my students to demonstrate Bourdieus concept of cultural capital and how it relates to social mobility (i.e. economic, social statues) in the real world. In a time of another American recession, jobs and economic security is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, especially high school students who are entering the workforce or pursuing a post-secondary education in an extremely competitive job market. Now, I dislike teaching traditional grammar as most English teachers tend to do after so much formulaic instruction (if I liked it so much, I would’ve become a math teacher) but it seems absolutely essential in order for students to achieve what Bourdiue calls a ‘linguistic capital’ that contributes to an individual’s cultural capital (ex. Language type, grammar, spelling, style) that factor into attain a specific ‘social space’.
“Moreover, the distribution of linguistic capital is related in specific ways to the distribution o f other forms of capital (economic capital, cultural capital, etc.)[. . .][h]ence, differences in terms of accent, grammar and vocabulary—the very differences overlooked by formal linguistics—are indices of the social positions of speakers and reflections of qualities of linguistic capitals ( and other capital) which they possess” (18).
I give my students an “Income Grammar Test” from the pedagogy book Image Grammar that measures a student's grammatical knowledge and then uses that measurement to predict the student's potential income if they entered the work force now. This is used to motivate students to be considerate of written and oral communication in a formal setting.
http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/133/136334/grammartest.pdf
“Every day individuals who make grammatical errors are victims of a pervasive but seldom discussed prejudice. People assume that those who make frequent grammatical errors are unintelligent, not very knowledgeable, and incompetent. None of this may be true. Language habits are more indicative of social background than education and ability. However, any business executive will support the notion that grammatical skill directly affects promotion. So, the idea behind the Grammar Income Test is valid, although the scored income level may not be” (Noden).
Bourdiue states “The question of performative utterances becomes clearer if one sees it as a particular case of the effects of symbolic domination, which occurs in all linguistic exchanges” (72). After students take the test (depending on the grade level) they seem to be more cognizant of their formal communication exchanges and how “incorporated signs (such as manners, ways of speaking)” assist in creating an image used as a tool to judge and individual’s character (class, capital, etc) and worth seen by others. (123)
So, if you have some time, try the quiz above WITHOUT looking at the answers, and see what degree of symbolic power designated by your cultural capital you may possess based off of your performance.
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I took it and got 3 wrong - but one of those answers is WRONG! #15 is incorrect, because the correct word is "principal", as used in finance. Am I missing something? And why do I care so much? I could almost feel the symbolic violence being done to me as my worth (in dollars) was judged by a grammar test. I don't even want to be a top executive, so why does it matter? Wierd . . .
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