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Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms
Ways with Words is a classic study of children learning to use language at home and at school in two communities only a few miles apart in the south-eastern United States. 'Roadville' is a white working-class community of families steeped for generations in the life of textile mills; 'Trackton' is an African-American working-class community whose older generations grew up farming the land, but whose existent members work in the mills. In tracing the children's language development the author shows the deep cultural differences between the two communities, whose ways with words differ as strikingly from each other as either does from the pattern of the townspeople, the 'mainstream' blacks and whites who hold power in the schools and workplaces of the region. Employing the combined skills of ethnographer, social historian, and teacher, the author raises fundamental questions about the nature of language development, the effects of literacy on oral language habits, and the sources of communication problems in schools and workplaces.
450 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 7, 1983
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November 16, 2025
When I finished my undergraduate degree, I was reading the local newspaper in bed and there was an ad asking for people to volunteer to tutor people in adult literacy. I felt so lucky in having done my degree. No one else in my family had been to university and I deeply felt the need to ‘pay forward’, as they say. So, I became a volunteer and quickly felt completely out of my depth. I found out that there was a graduate certificate course being offered in adult literacy and basic education. It became my first post-graduate qualification. And god, I loved it. My students were a joy and learnt far quicker than I expected. I tried to share with them my love of reading and to show them the world that opens up from inside a book. During my course in learning how to teach people to read, we were given this author’s article What No Bedtime Story Means. It was a revelation to me. Over the years, I’ve told endless people about it and how deeply it affected me. But, for some reason, I never thought to see if she’d ever written anything else. I wish I’d read this at the time or even a while later – but I’ve only come to it now almost by mistake. Really, you don’t think you need to read this book, but you really do. It is a remarkable piece of research and the author has a real way with her material that you find yourself racing along with her.
This is the story of three separate communities. One black, one white and working class, and another white and middle class. It is the story of their remarkably distinct relationships with literacy and language more generally. And the author applies ethnography in ways that take your breath away. The things she notices about their use of language and the likely impact these will have on their future academic success are masterful.
The black community doesn’t use books or other printed material nearly as much as the other communities. And this is as true of the adults as it is for their children. As such, there are few role models for these children to encourage them to be readers. What is stunningly interesting is that the children learn to speak by actively listening to adults speaking around them. This is obviously true of all children, but in this case the adults are less likely to have conversations directly with their children. A lot of the speaking events that are most prized in the community involve exaggerations and low-level insults. That is, it is hard to know the literal truth of much that is being said. The point of conversation is often as much to entertain as it is to provide information. The insults are often intended to be humorous, rather than degrading. There are lines that are not to be crossed, but these are not always immediately obvious. And they are likely to be significantly different depending on your relationship with the person you are speaking to. In theory, at least, these children are highly practiced in creative thinking and playing with language, but because they do not have the literacy skills prized at school, these talents rarely are brought to the fore. And what make it worse is that their methods of telling stories are also not those valued by the schools. This can mean that their teachers are unable to even follow these as stories. With that said, a large part of the end of the book is dedicated to teachers who try to do exactly this. The author teaches them ethnographic techniques to help them understand their students and their community language standards. This is not merely to better understand these students, but also to find ways to engage them with a richer variety of language experiences, but as the author repeatedly says, if teaching children language is done so as to separate them from their communities, then children are more likely to reject the teacher than their family and friends.
The working class white children look as if they are doing the right things. Their parents tend to buy them books that help them learn their letters and to read simple words in alphabet books before they begin school. But the parents belong to evangelical Protestant groups and so other than Bible stories, the children are exposed to very little else. Their parents also have a very low opinion of ‘stories’ more generally. They see ‘telling stories’ as effectively lying. This means their children get no experience in being creative prior to school and have a strange and messy relationship with some of the books that they are exposed to at school. So much so that they end up living a kind of double life – with the expectations of school and of home being decidedly different. When people interact, they are most likely to tell stories about themselves that has a kind of moral to them. That is, they will say something that happened to them in life, generally something far less than flattering, and then possibly link this to a story from the Bible. This near obsession with what you saying being ‘true’ makes some of the things asked of the children at school culturally difficult for the children.
The middle class white children are immersed in literacy throughout their lives. They are read to, their parents write notes to each other, they engage with texts by asking their children questions about the story and events that occur within them, they are encouraged to be creative – all things that are highly rewarded by their schools as well. Their children are also encouraged, in real life, to notice things in much the say ways that they are expected to notice things in the books that are read to them. Their parents speak to them and make reading books an important joint time between parent and child. It could hardly be surprising that these children will successful at school.
The mistake here would be to assume that only the middle class parents actually care about school. All three communities are very keen for their children to do well – but only one community has life habits that match those of the school. As Bernstein says, for some children school is a direct continuation of their home life, for others it is a direct break and not always one that either makes sense to the children. Worse still, the children quickly see that the world that schooling is leading them towards is often away from the world they were born into. And again, it is made clear to them that the world schooling might lead them towards is unlikely to welcome them with open arms. Because so few teachers know anything at all about the other life worlds of the children they teach, it is much more likely for these teachers to simply believe that these children are incapable of learning.
The research took over a decade to complete. As the author says at the beginning of the book, it was only due to a strange intersection of unlikely events that it came about in the first place. But it would be very hard to come away from this book and not think that this kind of ethnographic research ought to be a priority for schools everywhere – particularly schools that are dealing with diverse student cohorts. There is a particularly lovely part of this book where the least able students are given hard back books to bring home and the pride that this instils in them is something else. In another example she uses, students in a low-achievement grade are given an assignment to effectively become ethnographer of their own communities. This is something the students take to with gusto. We forget the power of giving students things to do that are meaningful to them. The students were not ‘left to their own devices’ in these projects, but rather guided along every step of the way – but it was clear that it was their own work and, because the assignment was innately meaningful to the students, they approached it with determination and enthusiasm.
This is such a lovely book and, as I’ve already said, shows the power of using ethnography in changing how we see and understand communities – not least in how particular attributes of communities engagement with language might set them up to fail at school. We live in a world today where such considerations are moving further and further away from being considered important in teaching and learning. In a world of standardised tests and explicit instruction, the assumption is that all children respond to identical strategies and high impact pedagogies. But again, quoting Bernstein, if over a hundred years of educational research has shown us anything at all, it is that children learn best when their teachers have discovered what and how they currently understand their world, and then to use that knowledge to help to teach them. This ought to be obvious – unfortunately, if education teaches us anything at all, it is that what is obvious is rarely what people end up seeing or promoting – particularly not for ‘other people’s children’.
This is the story of three separate communities. One black, one white and working class, and another white and middle class. It is the story of their remarkably distinct relationships with literacy and language more generally. And the author applies ethnography in ways that take your breath away. The things she notices about their use of language and the likely impact these will have on their future academic success are masterful.
The black community doesn’t use books or other printed material nearly as much as the other communities. And this is as true of the adults as it is for their children. As such, there are few role models for these children to encourage them to be readers. What is stunningly interesting is that the children learn to speak by actively listening to adults speaking around them. This is obviously true of all children, but in this case the adults are less likely to have conversations directly with their children. A lot of the speaking events that are most prized in the community involve exaggerations and low-level insults. That is, it is hard to know the literal truth of much that is being said. The point of conversation is often as much to entertain as it is to provide information. The insults are often intended to be humorous, rather than degrading. There are lines that are not to be crossed, but these are not always immediately obvious. And they are likely to be significantly different depending on your relationship with the person you are speaking to. In theory, at least, these children are highly practiced in creative thinking and playing with language, but because they do not have the literacy skills prized at school, these talents rarely are brought to the fore. And what make it worse is that their methods of telling stories are also not those valued by the schools. This can mean that their teachers are unable to even follow these as stories. With that said, a large part of the end of the book is dedicated to teachers who try to do exactly this. The author teaches them ethnographic techniques to help them understand their students and their community language standards. This is not merely to better understand these students, but also to find ways to engage them with a richer variety of language experiences, but as the author repeatedly says, if teaching children language is done so as to separate them from their communities, then children are more likely to reject the teacher than their family and friends.
The working class white children look as if they are doing the right things. Their parents tend to buy them books that help them learn their letters and to read simple words in alphabet books before they begin school. But the parents belong to evangelical Protestant groups and so other than Bible stories, the children are exposed to very little else. Their parents also have a very low opinion of ‘stories’ more generally. They see ‘telling stories’ as effectively lying. This means their children get no experience in being creative prior to school and have a strange and messy relationship with some of the books that they are exposed to at school. So much so that they end up living a kind of double life – with the expectations of school and of home being decidedly different. When people interact, they are most likely to tell stories about themselves that has a kind of moral to them. That is, they will say something that happened to them in life, generally something far less than flattering, and then possibly link this to a story from the Bible. This near obsession with what you saying being ‘true’ makes some of the things asked of the children at school culturally difficult for the children.
The middle class white children are immersed in literacy throughout their lives. They are read to, their parents write notes to each other, they engage with texts by asking their children questions about the story and events that occur within them, they are encouraged to be creative – all things that are highly rewarded by their schools as well. Their children are also encouraged, in real life, to notice things in much the say ways that they are expected to notice things in the books that are read to them. Their parents speak to them and make reading books an important joint time between parent and child. It could hardly be surprising that these children will successful at school.
The mistake here would be to assume that only the middle class parents actually care about school. All three communities are very keen for their children to do well – but only one community has life habits that match those of the school. As Bernstein says, for some children school is a direct continuation of their home life, for others it is a direct break and not always one that either makes sense to the children. Worse still, the children quickly see that the world that schooling is leading them towards is often away from the world they were born into. And again, it is made clear to them that the world schooling might lead them towards is unlikely to welcome them with open arms. Because so few teachers know anything at all about the other life worlds of the children they teach, it is much more likely for these teachers to simply believe that these children are incapable of learning.
The research took over a decade to complete. As the author says at the beginning of the book, it was only due to a strange intersection of unlikely events that it came about in the first place. But it would be very hard to come away from this book and not think that this kind of ethnographic research ought to be a priority for schools everywhere – particularly schools that are dealing with diverse student cohorts. There is a particularly lovely part of this book where the least able students are given hard back books to bring home and the pride that this instils in them is something else. In another example she uses, students in a low-achievement grade are given an assignment to effectively become ethnographer of their own communities. This is something the students take to with gusto. We forget the power of giving students things to do that are meaningful to them. The students were not ‘left to their own devices’ in these projects, but rather guided along every step of the way – but it was clear that it was their own work and, because the assignment was innately meaningful to the students, they approached it with determination and enthusiasm.
This is such a lovely book and, as I’ve already said, shows the power of using ethnography in changing how we see and understand communities – not least in how particular attributes of communities engagement with language might set them up to fail at school. We live in a world today where such considerations are moving further and further away from being considered important in teaching and learning. In a world of standardised tests and explicit instruction, the assumption is that all children respond to identical strategies and high impact pedagogies. But again, quoting Bernstein, if over a hundred years of educational research has shown us anything at all, it is that children learn best when their teachers have discovered what and how they currently understand their world, and then to use that knowledge to help to teach them. This ought to be obvious – unfortunately, if education teaches us anything at all, it is that what is obvious is rarely what people end up seeing or promoting – particularly not for ‘other people’s children’.
August 14, 2009
This book is an amazing example of qualitative research. Heath was in the field for 11 years and gathered an unbelievable amount of data from two very different communities in the south--one White and one African American. She observed differences in the use and exposure to language by the children of the communities and then went into classrooms and observed how the differences impacted children during schooling. Her extensive work is to be praised and this book makes all the labor very accessible and enjoyable.
January 31, 2025
Although I found this book extraordinarily informative on how language, reading, and writing acquisition occurs in young children, and how it gets messed up if it’s not addressed the same way at school, the book and research is considered outdated at this point.
Heath’s ethnographic expertise is immeasurable. She dedicated several years of observation in the Piedmont south of South Carolina to analyze two very distinct communities, Rodaville and Trackton, who all go to a school located in a more “appropriate” town nearby with students who are more prepared for learning in a school setting. She sets out to prove that despite the racial differences in the two communities, neither provided preschool children with the skills needed in school. This historically caused failures, dropouts, and countdown timers in their youth to leave school and to lock themselves in a workforce with a lower socioeconomic status quo than they are capable of.
The research herein has merit and certainly holds some insight for educators, parents, and even people generally interested in literacy acquisition, but it is outdated. Not a fault of the researcher or the research, but the reader should take this all with a grain of very large salt. It is still rife with helpful, thoughtful, and incredibly in-depth knowledge.
Heath’s ethnographic expertise is immeasurable. She dedicated several years of observation in the Piedmont south of South Carolina to analyze two very distinct communities, Rodaville and Trackton, who all go to a school located in a more “appropriate” town nearby with students who are more prepared for learning in a school setting. She sets out to prove that despite the racial differences in the two communities, neither provided preschool children with the skills needed in school. This historically caused failures, dropouts, and countdown timers in their youth to leave school and to lock themselves in a workforce with a lower socioeconomic status quo than they are capable of.
The research herein has merit and certainly holds some insight for educators, parents, and even people generally interested in literacy acquisition, but it is outdated. Not a fault of the researcher or the research, but the reader should take this all with a grain of very large salt. It is still rife with helpful, thoughtful, and incredibly in-depth knowledge.
September 21, 2018
This book covers a researcher who goes in to two rural communities, literally on either side of the tracks. One is predominantly white, the other black. The researcher looks at how children learn to speak, read and write before considering the wider implications on teaching and learning.
Fascinating study.
Fascinating study.
April 6, 2021
Classic ethnographic study, centered around language acquisition between two different communities. A bit slow in the beginning (and admittedly dense to get through if language acquisition and literacy are not your forte) but it was definitely a better read than I thought it would be. A solid choice for language and literacy educators particularly.
February 1, 2018
Fascinating look at literacy practices in two different Southern communities, and the impact these contrasting practices have on children’s success at school. Would highly recommend to anyone interested in education, language socialization, or issues of inequality.
September 19, 2021
Intriguing qualitative research that focuses on development of literacies connected to the power of community norms. My book is rife with bookmarks to return back to while thinking of my students’ literate identities.
July 30, 2017
Read this year's ago. Remembering it as I start to read Hillbilly Elegy. Family traditions, ways of speaking and being in the America that we don't usually read about.
August 16, 2017
Interesting look at children learning to use language at school and at home. Read it as part of the prep work I had to do to write a dissertation on bilingual education.
August 27, 2017
I read this in college after a professor recommended it. It's a wonderful eye opening book that shows daily life in physically close but culturally different communities.
August 17, 2014
Wonderful ethnographic study of the ways in which children use language in their homes and communities. I appreciated the rich, detailed description that the researcher gave of all three communities and their ways with words. It truly honored and respected their knowledge and the fact that it is not the quantity of language utilized, but rather the kind of language used.
The teachers in the study, also used ethnographic methods to study their ways with words and begin to realize that they, too, bring their ways to school. This enabled them to see their classrooms and students in new ways, providing bridges between the community ways with words and the school ways with words.
Rather than subtract the resources of the community, add to their ways with words and provide spaces for children to explore language and the way that language is used in different contexts.
This community work is close to my heart---and this study resonated with me in so many ways.
The teachers in the study, also used ethnographic methods to study their ways with words and begin to realize that they, too, bring their ways to school. This enabled them to see their classrooms and students in new ways, providing bridges between the community ways with words and the school ways with words.
Rather than subtract the resources of the community, add to their ways with words and provide spaces for children to explore language and the way that language is used in different contexts.
This community work is close to my heart---and this study resonated with me in so many ways.
May 1, 2008
Brice Heath's ethnography of two commmunities in Piedmont South Carolina illuminates ways that culture influences language and literacy learning. Her conclusions show that schools cater to the success of "townspeople", students from middle class, educated backgrounds, while students from rural or blue collar communities fail and drop out at alarming rates. By training teachers to look at instructional strategies from an ethnographic standpoint, progress was made in student retention, engagement and performance. The ending is bittersweet because, as her study ends during the Reagan era there was a shift to federal mandates for student performance, which has reached absurd proportions today under "No Child Left Behind". A one-size-fits-all approach will never work in a country as diverse as the U.S.
September 24, 2014
I was really impressed by this book. Shirley Brice Heath does excellent research in this accessible book. I loved reading about the different communities of Trackton and Roadville. Each community had a certain way of bringing up their children, and Brice Heath studied the way language developed among the children. It was very fascinating. I was even impressed by some of the teacher techniques mentioned later in the book. The very ending was slightly depressing, because it hints that teachers aren't given as much freedom in their creative teaching methods as they were in the past because of the restrictive standards implemented. That part was depressing as a future educator. However, the rest of the book overshadowed that detail, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned a lot and plan to implement some of my knowledge into my teaching. I highly recommend this work.
August 24, 2008
I have certain excerpts and sections of this book printed out from CU's online library. One in particular that any conscientious person, especially one who is planning on having children or just working with them, is a piece called "What No Bedtime Story Means". Heath describes the sociolinguistic teaching methods in an affluent West Virginia family, a lower middle class Appalachian family, and an African American family. What is discovered is crucial to every person's success in American schools; that if a child is not read to, and susequently taught that the two-dimensional thing in the story is a thing in the real world, that they will suffer the ill effects of what she refers to as "the inability to decontextualize". Seriously, read it if you care for humanity.
March 27, 2017
Another book for school, this one is the foundation for the type of research I'm doing -- looking into family literacy usage before school and how it mirrors (or does not mirror, as the case may be) how students are taught literacy in school. As it was published in the 1980s, it is obviously out-dated in some of the ways families behave -- like not using the telephone because it costs so much money. But, once Heath gets into the context of how language is used it does become informative. I can see how I speak to children is reflected in the ways that children are taught language. More importantly, I am beginning to understand how children's early lives effect how and what they learn in school.
April 1, 2009
Another important book for teachers. Heath looks at the way people talk and the literary experiences we have growing up. It's important that those of us who teach in multicultural classrooms realize that talking differently than a "normal white middle class person" isn't talking wrong. And different families, cultures, classes (I could go on and on here) have experienced literature differently and, again, different literary experiences can be learned from, there is not one right way to experience literature.
July 14, 2011
A classic on how students' home lives and culture affect their experiences in school, starting on day one. All teachers should read this and adapt their curriculum accordingly. Probably not for those who don't work in education, anthropology, or sociology, since it could appear to be a very dry read. But for those who are interested in how one's sub-culture interacts with formal education, then it's necessary.
December 26, 2011
Read it long ago as part of my Rhetoric and Tech Com degree. Left a big impression and I continue to recall its lessons about the connection between literacy to both homelife and schooling whenever in a discussion of literacy. These lessons also extend to other home influences and do much to explain why some succeed and others don't. It has a lot to do with the fact that the institution of schooling favors certain dominant elements of society and presents obstacles to minorities.
October 10, 2012
Fascinating ethnography of language acquisition in two North Carolina Piedmont communities in the 1970's. In a way, though, it's still relevant today, and I'm left wondering about the various ways students are learning language from their parents/communities and whether that does or does not align with the language I expect in my classroom. So much to think about! I'll be considering the kids in this book for a long time.
March 25, 2016
Yes, it's a classic, but you could save yourself a lot of trouble and just read the epilogue. Heath's research project is unmatched in the field, and her detailed data is just that. I recommend the Cliff Notes version to learn some very important lessons about oral language and literacy development.
September 18, 2016
This book really spoke to me. The mill workers of "Roadville" are my family and boy, did those descriptions ring true. Excellent explanations for why "poor kids" don't do well in school. It is a complete communication breakdown. But there are ways around it and this book is so helpful to show examples of how it can be done.
February 11, 2022
I read this book 20 years ago and I wanted to read it again. It is a wonderful book about three different communities and how they learn. The comparisons of these communities were amazing and full of lots of examples. I would highly recommend this book if you want to learn more about learning in these communities, how the children learn at home and then how they learn at school and beyond.
May 21, 2009
I found this book fascinating. It is about how different cultures teach, learn, and value language and the consequences on education. I do not think this book would appeal to everyone and it did lend itself to repetition, but the insight and conclusions were revealing.
December 2, 2009
Fascinating read for teachers, but somewhat discouraging for those of us that work in the field of professional writing. If nothing else, it carries a strong message for parents to involve and engage children in reading- and writing-related activities in the home as often as possible.
July 17, 2017
Very interesting, well researched and still relevant today. Really opened my eyes to the differences created by culture in the way children act and expect to be treated. A little long and repetitive though.
November 23, 2013
Fantastic book to understand how communities rich languages and lived experiences are not always understand or used in schools to benefit all. I especially loved reading the rich language of African American communities.
June 8, 2015
Thorough and thoughtful ethnography of how students/children in two social groups use language at home. It also addresses ways that teachers can use home literacy to build understanding, interest and competence.
October 31, 2007
I read this in a terrific class, and it was a really helpful book for me. I've been meaning to reread it for a while though because I don't remember it as well as I'd like to.
Read
October 27, 2010went in to this gruding...shocker...but it turned into a very nice asssignment....wlll post more soon.
December 26, 2011
This ethnography is so interesting to read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews