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May Helena Plumb
@mayhplumb
Y'ALL I GOT IT
When I went to the mainland school where these tests had taken place, I wanted to see what I could do to get at the children's actual capacity. They were then being trained for twenty minutes a day in a method which presumes no linguistic competence at all. Following the principles I just outlined, I cam into the classroom with a rabbit under my coat. The children wanted to know: "What's that under your coat?" At first I wouldn't tell them, but finally I said, "Look, I've got a rabbit here. Can any of you help me out? Somebody's got to take care of him while I'm talking to the teachers." Everyone naturally volunteered. I selected one (in later trials we always picked the least verbal child in the classroom), and asked him to pick three friends. They took the rabbit into a little room where my tape recorder was set up and running--in plain view. They were told, "He's kind of nervous, so just keep talking to him. He's used to people talking to him: talk to him and he won't get nervous."
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Betsy Sneller BLACK LIVES MATTER
@betsysneller
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#sociolinguistics Twitter, help (please RT)! I'm looking for a .pdf of the Labov paper where he takes a rabbit (at first hidden under a trenchcoat lol) into a classroom, then tells the kids the bunny will get nervous unless they talk to it, then leaves (1/n)
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May Helena Plumb
@mayhplumb
This is a PHENOMENAL little paper The general point is that tests educators were using to evaluate linguistic competency were highly artificial (e.g. ordering the child to talk), and therefore didn't capture the creativity & complexity within the children's language
The child was next shown a large photograph of children playing on a city street, and given careful instructions for what to do. "I want you to look at this picture on the wall. Do you see it? I want you to look at the children in this picture and I want you to see if you can tell me a story about what t he children are doing. Do you think you can do that? All right, whenever you're ready you can begin your story." We can call this a "request for display."
The children's response to this test, in general, was to say as little as possible. here is one of the most verbal responses to the main question: James: There's a girl riding a bike. Teacher: Good. Go ahead. James: A boy is playin' a ball and runnin'. And a boy ch-- is got his sleeves on his head. Teacher: Mhm. James: And the girl is--uh--playin'. James is one of the most talkative children in the group. Other said much less. Some were paralyzed into silence by the request for display.
The language used by Mays and James talking to the rabbit is far more complex than their responses to the teacher-tester. It is not uncommon to find causal arguments of considerable depth, together with comparatives which are still to complicated for linguists to analyze.
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