The level of vocabulary can be predicted according to the frequency in which parents read to their kids. “School must be the countercultural organization that reverts that trend”, said specialist Pablo Aristizábal to the Argentinian media Infobae.

By Maximiliano Fernandez

Argentina is no exception to what is happening in the entire world. Socioeconomic level is a strong predictor of a kid’s educational future. This does not only include how well they do in an exam, what grades they get or how many subjects they do not pass. The main difficulty that children from poor families face is language.

The Austrian philospher Ludwing Wittgenstein, once said “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”. This phrase has been quoted by the report “Language in the era of exponentiality”, written by Grupo Competir, which specializes in developing educational videos and games.

Language can be acquired in different ways: in school’s dynamic, during family conversations, songs, by reading or being read to, through videos. Socioeconomic possibilities, the household’s cultural capital, the number of books available in the family library, the kind of vocabulary used at home, have an impact on each of these alternatives

Even a report developed in 1995 concluded that you may predict a kid’s vocabulary and reading comprehension according to the frequency in which his/her parents read books to them.

According to the report, the real vocabulary includes active and passive vocabulary. The active vocabulary is the one we use when speaking or writing. It includes between 1,000 and 2,000 words. The passive vocabulary is the one we understand but do not use, and it is larger, including from 10,000 to 40,000 words.

The Spanish Royal Academy states that the Spanish language has around 88 thousand words. An average citizens speaks or writes with only 1,000 words. Young people only use 250 words.

“Nowadays, most youngsters who drop out of secondary school handle around 250 words in their active vocabulary. If we add the passive vocabulary, we come up with 2,500 words. In order to read and understand a newspaper you need about 4,000 words. If they lack the skill of signifiers, the truth is that they will hardly be able to understand what is going on around them. They may sense it, but not really put into words”, explained Pablo Aristizábal, author of the report.

It is rather hard to categorize Aristizábal. Actually, he can be defined by his eclecticism. He is a professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Buenos Aires, an entrepreneur, essays writer and international speaker, specialized in education and technology. In 2007 he created Aula 365, developing pedagogic videos and resources that have already been used by over 5 million students and teachers.

Another alarming piece of information that comes up from his report is the following: four year old kids from a lower socioeconomic level listen to 30 million words less than kids who are more stimulated. They get 25 points less in reading comprehension tests. “The largest gap in Argentina is not political. The major gap is linked with language”, he reflects.

Why do you consider that language is such a key element?

– Language is ontological, it part of what makes us human beings. When we lack vocabulary, our world becomes smaller, it is harder to understand the complexity of what surrounds us, and even to understand ourselves. We find it hard to acknowledge another person and the otherness, we become invisible.

Is it more important today than what it used to be?

– In the knowledge society, it is a key element to develop critical (doubt), divergent (question), deductive (explore), inductive (create) and abstract (elevate) thinking. These are high level cognitive skills that enable us to play the game in a world where artificial intelligence is becoming more and more important.

Is it enough with language?

– Having words is a necessary condition, but it is not enough. Borges defined our understanding, our reasoning as an “approximate game of symbols”. Language enables us to understand, build signs, symbols, signifiers, to acknowledge the other, our changing world, and from that understanding, passion and compassion are born, and social cohesion emerges.

As regards the initial training of language, what share of responsiblity do parents have, and what share does the school have?

This is a very difficult gap to close and, in many cases, it has unsurmountable consequences. If there is no library at home, children do not read, so school has to become the countercultural organization that reverts that negative trend. A space where you can read, where language is promoted, literature gatherings. The State is also responsible for implementing early action policies, starting from the day a kid is born.

Is it possible for a kid who is born in a vulnerable context, with no cultural capital at home, to acquire proper language?

The challenge is to never lose the utopia, the goal of guaranteeing that everyone has the same opportunities, regardless of where they are born. School is a key cohesion instrument that we have as a society, and that is why it is so important. At school, a kid born in a vulnerable context can discover the pleasure of reading. The essence of school is to be countercultural. If it is fashionable not to read, at school kids must read. If people only speak, at school kids must talk, which is different. In addition, they must watch videos or whatever is trendy.

What is the role of YouTube and social networks in the process of language acquisition?

Nowadays there are new means, such as audiovisual and symbolic tools, for example the use of emojies. I like quoting McLuhan: “The relationship with the environment is the message”. We can make the most of the uses that children already give to these means, as a way to promote language, and teachers can become enablers. For example, to draw their attention, they can learn to conjugate verbs through a song, they can watch a video of grammar class as many times as they need to understand the rules.

Does language provide children with autonomy?

Language enables children to express themselves, to acknowledge the other, to understand whether they are frustrated or angry, to properly identify their emotions to be able to deal with them. It also enables us to grow and develop our potential. The lack of words leads to violence: we cannot debate or understand the other person. If children fail to understand what is going on with them, what is going on around them, they can hardly change reality. They lack the tools to develop in this new knowledge society, which demands creativity and autonomy.

Source: Infobae