Londoño Vásquez, David AlbertoCastañeda Naranjo, Luz Stella2012-05-292012-05-2920111794-4449http://hdl.handle.net/10567/376Introduction. This article describes the relationship between language, family and education in the case of the reinforcement semester from Universitaria de Envigado during the second semester of 2010. Objective. To establish the relationship between social stratum and written culture. Materials and methods. Departing from the restricted code and elaborated code concepts, proposed by Basil Bernstein, M.A.K Halliday´s proposal of language as a social semiotic is re taken. Results. In order to verify if social stratum influences reading comprehension and writing skills, two 34 type tests were practiced to students that were coursing SEA in the second semester of 2010. Then, the students were divided into three groups, classified by social stratum. Finally, the information was triangulated with the ICFES tests results in the language area. Conclusions. A relationship was established between social stratum and written culture, suggesting a necessity to strengthen the primary and secondary educational cycles in order to solve the difficulties that take place among lower stratus families and thus allowing students to develop elaborated codes, because, in general terms, Institución Universitaria de Envigado is being attended only by students who can only manage the restricted code.esLenguajeCorporación Universitariade EnvigadoCorporación Universitaria LasallistaCódigo elaboradoCódigo restringidoLiteracidadClase socialBasil bernsteinArticle