Gordon hello!
thanks for these generous comments.
well, my feeling is that most probably Bernstein and Vygotsy (as also
Halliday and Vygotsky) would have got on very well; they have so much in
common -- they attach importance to the same social semiotic cognitive
issues and all three are close readers of Marx. Pity we will never know -- I
truly believe Vygotsky was a phenomenon, just like Whorf -- another scholar
who like Bernstein got no press or only bad press in the U.S. But his time
will come, I am certain.
I don't know Gordon about bringing in my views on activity into the debate.
I don't really think I know what you folks mean by the word activity --
though I have just asked a question on this.
That makes two of us: I too am going to be pre-occupied (prior engagement
until next week) so most probably I will not be participating in the
discussions on this listserve until mid-week next week.
Have a good conference Gordon
Ruqaiya
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon Wells" <gwells@ucsc.edu>
To: <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2005 12:32 PM
Subject: [xmca] re: LCA Vygotsky, Halliday and Bernstein
> Ruqaiya,
>
> I enjoyed reading your paper on Vygotsky and Bernstein. I wonder how
> they'd have got on if they'd been able to engage in discussion in
> real time! I agree with your qualifications about Vygotsky's view of
> language, in particular his focus on 'word' as the unit of meaning,
> particularly in relation to the semiotic mediation that enculturates
> the young language learner. I also agree with your point about
> Vygotsky's focus on the ideational metafunction at the expense of the
> interpersonal. This is surprising in a way as he places considerable
> importance on the interdependence of cognition and affect, where the
> latter, both initially and probably throughout our lives, most
> frequently arises in the context of interpersonal interaction. If I
> recollect correctly, Lemke makes the point that the interpersonal
> function encompasses an attitudinal orientation to the interlocutor
> which has a variety of lexicogrammatical realizations.
>
> As Phil added in his p.s., I'm going to be away from early next week,
> making a camping trip to explore part of Northern California. But
> I'll be back by the end of the week and will catch up on the
> discussion.
>
> I'm glad that you've become involved in this listserv. We shall
> benefit from your perspective on activity theory as well as on
> Vygotsky.
>
> Gordon
> --
> Gordon Wells
> Dept of Education, http://education.ucsc.edu/faculty/gwells
> UC Santa Cruz.
> gwells@ucsc.edu
>
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