Talk Reform

Originally published in 1970, Talk Reform describes the development of an exploratory language enrichment programme devised by the authors and carried out by teachers in a group of primary schools in a working-class area of London. Inspired by Bernstein’s theory of different language codes and their relation to educational underachievement, the authors devised a series of situations in the classroom as preconditions for extending language use. Their aim was to reorient the reader to the social f