Michael Stubbs, in his chapter, “Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts”, makes some interesting and pithy arguments. I enjoyed how he was direct in what he wanted to say. From the way he writes, we can also tell that he has the children’s growth process in mind when discussing how they should be taught in schools. We learn in the introduction to the chapter that Stubbs does not want children to feel that whatever language they speak is “wrong”. However, he wants them to understand the principles of English and its dialects in their sociolinguistic aspects. He explains that they are all acceptable and “right,” but society has assigned our different ways of speaking to different settings and situations. I like his idea that the students should be able to “match their speech to the setting in which they find themselves.” This will make enable them to flourish in whatever setting they find themselves in and they will be more knowledgeable of the different cultural and social aspects of the language as well. Stubbs explains “It is important to appreciate that language differences can provoke strong feelings of language loyalty group conflict and are therefore often a critical factor in education“ (70).
This will hopefully lead to less judgmental and stereotypical thought. I also thought about Cajun French. Is it not ironic that it was once looked at as a lesser or “low” dialect, and now we are in fear of it completely dying out?
Oh, I also think it is awesome that there is no Standard English dialect or accent, and we can speak Standard English with any accent. Because of this, it ends up being molded to part of who we are.
i am commenting on this.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Michael Stubbs that “students should be able to ‘match their speech to the setting in which they find themselves,’” because it is the only way they are going to be able to survive in society. Code switching plays a major role on how others view us. We each have our own dialect and depending on which dialect it is will determine how we are “classified.” So where and how do students learn to code switch in order to survive? The best place to begin is in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteLisa Delpit gives teachers great advice in chapter three on how to be effective. She addresses that there are four aspects teachers need: identify with each students, validate their natural dialect, entertain them and encourage them. These four aspects are the key on how teachers can teach Standard English effectively without putting any dialect down. She also goes into more detail about why students fail learning Standard English. She says teaches need to find the students interest and build lesson plans to suit their interest, because otherwise they will not engage in the learning.
It is important as future teachers that we are aware that a large percent of students will not know how to code before they enter our classrooms. That is where the challenge begins. I loved Lisa’s ideas of getting to know the students and sticking with their interests to teach Standard English, but what other ways can we teach code switching?
I do have to ask about your last statement. You said there is no dialect or accent for SE and by using our own dialects it molds into who we are, but doesn’t each accent/dialect that speaks SE create another accent/dialect? Isn’t that how language and dialects work? They adapt to the language and the region.