The anthropological perspective of the ethnography of communication will be adopted to study the relationship between language use, social relations, culture and learning in and out of schools. The course will deal with the nature and origin of cultural differences in language use and patterns and social interactional styles; with the consequences of those differences for school performance; and with the usefulness of the ethnography of communication as both a research and a pedagogical tool in the development of curricula and teaching practices that account for such differences. The ethnography of communication will also be interpreted in the light of political economic perspectives on the issue of sociolinguistic diversity and educational success.