As English teachers, we often feel it is our duty to give our students the know-how needed to speak and write effectively. That is why “improper” language variations bug us. Maybe we feel compelled to correct students because they sound uneducated, or maybe it’s because we don’t want our students’ acquisition of the standard to be impeded. Whatever it is, we need to take a look at how these language variations affect the classroom, and what we can do to respond.
Most people know how to code-switch. They know how to talk to their peers versus how to talk to an authority figure, elder, parent, etc. Because of this, most of us speak different dialects more than we realize. Why some students seem to have a problem bridging the gap between their vernacular and technical speech is offered to us from Joe Napora, a college composition professor:
That early chaos of learning, where we learned to speak our language, became an ordered rigid environment as we learned to write the language, a language that became less and less our own, more and more foreign as the rules tightened on our speech-based writing.
The problem lies in the difference between what appropriate written language should be and what our own speaking style is. As teachers, we should not exhaust the difference. After all, as long as the parties involved can communicate effectively (each understands what the other means) language is working. Dialects should not be sacrificed for a mainstream, “right-sounding” manner of speaking.
Most people know how to code-switch. They know how to talk to their peers versus how to talk to an authority figure, elder, parent, etc. Because of this, most of us speak different dialects more than we realize. Why some students seem to have a problem bridging the gap between their vernacular and technical speech is offered to us from Joe Napora, a college composition professor:
That early chaos of learning, where we learned to speak our language, became an ordered rigid environment as we learned to write the language, a language that became less and less our own, more and more foreign as the rules tightened on our speech-based writing.
The problem lies in the difference between what appropriate written language should be and what our own speaking style is. As teachers, we should not exhaust the difference. After all, as long as the parties involved can communicate effectively (each understands what the other means) language is working. Dialects should not be sacrificed for a mainstream, “right-sounding” manner of speaking.
A few things we can do:
Sources:
1. “Preparing Teachers for Dialectally Diverse Classrooms.”Amanda J. Godley, Julie Sweetland, Rebecca S. Wheeler, Angela Minnici and Brian D. Carpenter. Educational Researcher , Vol. 35, No. 8 (Nov., 2006) 30- 37.Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
2. Napora, Joe. “Orality and Literacy, Intimacy and Alientation: The Eternal, Internal, Contradictions of Teaching Composition.” Changing English: Studies in Reading & Culture 9.1 (2002): 67-76. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
3. Bertonneau, Thomas F. “Orality, Literacy, and the Tradition.” Modern Age 45.2 (2003). 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
- Stop and consider our own language-use. Do we always use Standard American English? When do we code switch? Why? (Often the answer that a change in dialect is a response to a control, or an emotional outburst.)
- Apply rhetoric. Rhetoric allows us to choose from a variety of ways to say the same thing.
- Relate to your students. If you need to code-switch to get a point across, do it.
- Be sure to tell your students that their language is not incorrect. Each dialect is governed by its own set of rules. Set up a compare and contrast.
Sources:
1. “Preparing Teachers for Dialectally Diverse Classrooms.”Amanda J. Godley, Julie Sweetland, Rebecca S. Wheeler, Angela Minnici and Brian D. Carpenter. Educational Researcher , Vol. 35, No. 8 (Nov., 2006) 30- 37.Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
2. Napora, Joe. “Orality and Literacy, Intimacy and Alientation: The Eternal, Internal, Contradictions of Teaching Composition.” Changing English: Studies in Reading & Culture 9.1 (2002): 67-76. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
3. Bertonneau, Thomas F. “Orality, Literacy, and the Tradition.” Modern Age 45.2 (2003). 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Apr. 2012.
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