2012 浙江杭州师范大学英语写作考研真题 I. Summary writing (40 marks). Read the following passage and sum up the main idea in no more than 120 words. Exceeding the word limit or copying the original sentences will result in a loss of marks. Bernstein regards language as something which both influences culture and is in turn influenced by culture. A child growing up in a particular linguistic environment and culture learns the language of that environment and that culture and then proceeds to pass on that learning to the next generation. Bernstein believes that there is a direct and reciprocal relationship between a particular kind of social structure, in both its establishment and its maintenance, and the way people in that social structure use language. Moreover, this relationship is a continuing one in that it is handed down from generation to generation. For Bernstein, a particular kind of social structure leads to a particular kind of linguistic behavior and this behavior in turn reproduces the original social structure. Consequently, a cycle exists in which certain social patterns produce certain linguistic patterns, which in turn reproduce the social patterns, and so on. Individuals also learn their social roles through the process of communication. This process differs from social group to social group, and, because it is different in each social group, existing role differences are perpetuated in society. What is of particular concern to Bernstein, therefore, are the quite different types of language that different social groups employ. He claims that there are two quite distinct varieties of language in use in society. He calls one variety elaborated code (originally formal code) and the other variety restricted code (originally public code). According to Bernstein, these codes have very different characteristics. For example, elaborated code makes use of accurate – in the sense of standard – grammatical order and syntax to regulate what is said; uses complex sentences that employ a range of devices for conjunction and subordination; employs prepositions to show relationships of both a temporal and logical nature; shows frequent use of the pronoun I; uses with care a wide range of adjectives and adverbs; allows for remarks to be qualified; and, according to Bernstein (1961, p. 169), ‘is a language use which points to the possibilities inherent in a complex conceptual hierarchy for the organizing of experience.’ In contrast, restricted code employs short, grammatically simple, and often unfinished sentences of poor – in the sense of nonstandard – syntactic form; uses a few conjunctions simply and repetitively; employs little subordination; tends toward a dislocated presentation of information; is rigid and limited in the use of adjectives and adverbs; makes infrequent use of impersonal pronoun subjects; confounds reasons and conclusions; makes frequent appeals to ‘sympathetic circularity,’ e.g., You know?; uses idioms frequently; 

and is ‘a language of implicit meaning.’ It is Bernstein’s view that every speaker of the language has access to the restricted code because all employ this code on certain occasions; e.g., it is the language of intimacy between familiars. However, not all social classes have equal access to the elaborated code, particularly lower working-class people and their children, who are likely to have little experience with it. According to Bernstein (1972b, p. 173), the consequences of this unequal distribution are considerable. In particular, children from the lower working class are likely to find themselves at a disadvantage when they attend school, in which extensive use is made of the elaborated code. He says: the different focusing of experience through a restricted code creates a major problem of educability only where the school produces discontinuity between its symbolic orders and those of the child. Our schools are not made for these children; why should the children respond? To ask the child to switch to an elaborated code which presupposes different role relationships and systems of meaning without a sensitive understanding of the required contexts must create for the child a bewildering and potentially damaging experience. According to Bernstein, therefore, there are serious consequences for the children of the lower working class when they come to school because elaborated code is the medium of instruction in schooling. When schools attempt to develop in children the ability to manipulate elaborated code, they are really involved in trying to change cultural patterns, and such involvement may have profound social and psychological consequences for all engaged in the task. Educational failure is likely to be the result. Bernstein’s theories have been employed in a variety of studies. A typical study is one by Henderson (1972), who investigated the language used by 100 mothers to their 7-year-old children. The mothers were divided into a middleclass (MC) group and a working-class (WC) group. Henderson reports that, relative to working-class mothers, middle-class mothers report they favor the use of abstract definitions, explicit rather than implicit definitions, and information-giving strategies in answering children’s questions, and they use language to transmit moral principles and to indicate feelings. In contrast to a child from the working class, a child from the middle class is oriented through language to principles as these relate to objects and persons and is given access to the systems through which knowledge is acquired. Henderson’s findings appear to support Bernstein’s theory that social classes differ in their use of language and pass these differences on from generation to generation. Henderson points out (p. 329) the consequences such findings have so far as education is concerned: It should be apparent that the linguistic socialization of the MC child is critically 

relevant to his ability to profit from the educational experience as this is currently defined. There is little discontinuity between the symbolic orders of the school and those to which he has been socialized through his family. Whereas for the working class child there is a hiatus between the symbolic orders of the school and those of his family. He is less oriented towards the meta-languages of control and innovation and the pattern of social relationships through which they are transmitted. The genesis of educational failure, according to our findings, may well be found in the pattern of communication and control which are realizations and thus transmitters of specific subcultures. The important word here is hiatus: there is a gap between what the lower working-class child brings to school and what happens in school. Moreover, present types of schooling do not close the gap, and child-rearing practices continue to ensure that it exists in subsequent generations. II. Exposition writing (50 marks): Learning strategies are specific methods or techniques used by individual learners to facilitate learning more efficiently and effectively. What strategies do you employ for English learning? Name about three of them and explain each with some details. Write an essay in no less than 150 words. Marks will be awarded on the basis of your organization, diction, grammar and appropriateness. III. Argumentation writing (60 marks): Sex is no longer a taboo topic in Chinese society. Recently it was reported that sexual health clinics could soon be open in every UK secondary school and college so that all pupils and college students would have easy access to emergency contraception and pregnancy testing without their parents being told. Then how do you like the idea of having condom-vending machines installed on the Chinese campus for the sake of safe sex among college students? Write a piece of argument in about 400 words. In the first part you should state your position clearly; in the second, you should supply relevant evidence to support your position; and finally you should bring your essay to a logical conclusion. Marks will be awarded on the basis of your organization, diction, grammar and appropriateness.