Sociolinguistic Comparison among Students of the Western Zone of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro

The way in which social & cultural inequality affects linguistic behavior is studied. Students in one private & one public school (N = 20) were given a questionnaire to determine a profile of the two groups, including education level of parents, continuity of education, basic necessities, literacy, contact with vehicles of culture, & opportunities for social betterment. Phonographical, morphosyntactic, & lexico-semantic aspects of written language were analyzed in student essays. The public school students were found to exhibit many more nonstandard features & less interesting topics in their writing samples than those produced by the private school students. It is concluded that the more diversified experiences in the lives of the private school students were revealed in the higher quality of their compositions. The topics they chose showed greater maturity with an elevated consciousness of local, national, & world events. It was determined that the greater linguistic repertoire shared by private school students gave them a greater communicative & expressive capacity than that of the public school students. 24 References. B. Haapa