Jan Průcha: Sociolinguistic Factor in Explaining Reading Literacy

The paper summarizes the reading literacy achievement of pupils in the PISA project. The average scores of the Czech, Slovak and Finnish pupils are compared. In the Czech pupil sample, the effect of socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics of pupils´ home has been proved to be a significant factor. An overview of B. Bernstein’s theory on the relationship of language, education and social class is presented, and has been applied by the author to explain the reasons of low reading literacy of Czech pupils.

PEDAGOGIKA SK 2010, Vol. 1. (No. 2: 97-105)

Key words: reading literacy, theory of B. Bernstein, PISA project, inequality in education, compensation of language deficit