We obviously do not concur with such sentiments, nor do we believe that
there is adequate support for them (see Robinson, 1979). We mention this
work on class differences in language use only to acknowledge that differences
may in fact exist which may prove a hindrance to children's school
progess; this is an acknowledgement of social deficits rather than substantive
cognitive or linguistic ones. And, indeed, there is reason to think that these
class differences are themselves not as pronounced as the deficit theorists
would have us believe. There is, for example, the general caution that must be attached to any study conducted by middle-class researchers into workingclass
speech, communicative skills and life-styles, in which differences may
be found in rather artificial, unfamiliar or actually alien circumstances (see
Edwards, 1979a; Stipek and Nelson, 1980).