In the third week, we learned about the importance of language in teaching and learning. Language is not only a tool of communication but also a very important factor for the development of an individual's thinking, identity and personal growth. Children primarily acquire their language skills in the social and cultural contexts around them, such as their home, school and community. It is often the differences in language used between these contexts that cause learners to have difficulty adapting to a different context such as the classroom. Language has always been, since I was very young, an extremely important issue in my personal development. I am originally from Greece and received all my primary and secondary education in my native language, Greek. However, I left Greece and moved to the UK where I did all my university studies in a completely different and foreign language, English. I was then faced with a double challenge. Not only that of language in different contexts but also the use of a foreign language in several different contexts. When I was at university in the early 1990s, the presence of international students in the UK whose English was not their first language was steadily increasing. However, most instructors used a restricted language code, assuming that all students were familiar with the terminology and abbreviations used in our field of study. Students, on the other hand, not having previously been exposed to many foreigners also used a restricted code to communicate with their peers, mostly unaware that foreigners like me lacked the ability to understand and follow their conversations. It's very clear that it doesn't take much for people like me to feel excluded...... middle of paper ...... language codes and helping our students enrich their knowledge, their vocabulary and language use skills. In my role as an educator and due to my own past experiences, I am constantly aware of the language and context in which certain words are used and I always try to educate my students by using mostly elaborate linguistic codes that seem much more inclusive and understandable.Works Cited1. Week 3 Lecture 1, The Nature and Importance of Language, Commonwealth Education Trust, Lecture 2: Being a Teacher by Dr D. Francis2. Patricia M. Rowell, BES Project (1998) Language for Teaching and Learning in the Classroom, Some Observations. Reform Forum: Journal for Education Reform in Namibia, 8:1-8 (http://www.nied.edu.na/publications/journals/journal8/Journal%208%20Article%203.pdf)3 . Basil Bernstein's Restricted and Elaborate Codes