Words at Work and Play
Three Decades in Family and Community Life

A thirty year study tracking the changes in family life and language development in 300 working-class families from 1981 onwards.

Shirley Brice Heath (Author)

9780521841979, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 January 2012

240 pages, 8 b/w illus. 3 maps 8 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.6 cm, 0.5 kg

'… shows what linguistic anthropology can accomplish in the voice of an accomplished and stylish writer. Heath brings empathy and understanding to the successive hardships and struggles of ordinary families in the USA … providing fascinating maps of the people's migration patterns, their changing ways of engaging with play and work, and the language interactions among parents and children.' Brian Street, Professor Emeritus of Language in Education, King's College London

Childhood and family life have changed significantly in recent decades. What is the nature of these changes? How have they affected the use of time, space, work and play? In what ways have they influenced face-to-face talk and the uses of technology within families and communities? Eminent anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath sets out to find answers to these and similar questions, tracking the lives of 300 black and white working-class families as they reshaped their lives in new locations, occupations and interpersonal alignments over a period of thirty years. From the 1981 recession through the economic instabilities and technological developments of the opening decade of the twenty-first century, Shirley Brice Heath shows how families constantly rearrange their patterns of work, language, play and learning in response to economic pressures. This outstanding study is a must-read for anyone interested in family life, language development and social change.

1. On being long in company
2. A boy finds his mama(s)
3. The closeness of strangers
4. Embracing talk
5. Lines of vision
6. The hand of play
7. Ways with time and words
8. Shaping the mainstream.

Subject Areas: Education [JN], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Psycholinguistics [CFD], Literacy [CFC], Sociolinguistics [CFB]