Ways with Words Ethnographic Study

         In Ways with Words, Shirley Brice Heath studies the language acquisition and use of the member in two communities, Roadville and Trackton. Throughout the book, Heath continually affirms that the children of Roadville and Trackton’s different language use are a result of different cultural practices: family structures, community members’ roles, socialization, religious practices, and more. Implicit under this argument is that all children’s language use is shaped by the language patterns of their community, and as such, these cultural language usages need to be taken into consideration when teaching literacy. Literacy does not occur in a vacuum; the history, both of the individual and of the socio-cultural landscape of that individual, impacts learners at the attempt to acquire literacy.

     

         This sort of  ethnographic study is the kind of research I would interested in doing. However,   rather than looking at traditional geographic communities, I would be interested in the language of “cyber” communities. In my undergraduate study, I almost touched upon this type of research. I explored the fan-fiction communities and how they used language to create and maintain their communities. Heath’s methodology is very intriguing, and I would like to modify some of her techniques on unobtrusive study for my own research.