Inquiry 2: The Skin that we Speak

In the intro to The Skin That We Speak, Lisa Delpit acknowledges that language diversity is a problem that teachers face in the classroom. “Many teachers don’t know how to approach language diversity,” Delpit said. The author notes that she will introduce new ways for teachers to explore language diversity. I am interested to finish the novel in order to discover how teachers can include both Standard and African American English in their classrooms. My biggest question now is – How can this be done? How can teachers teach what’s grammatically correct in Standard English while at the same time including aspects of African American English? I want to learn ways to include both SE and AAL in the classroom, or in other words, combine the language of home and school into one that’s effective for the students. I aspire to be that teacher.

In order to become that teacher, I have to know and understand the underlying reasons or concerns of the issue. I found the box with the tape recorders project to be extremely interesting. I think answering the following questions would be a great start for me to understand a little more. Why did these students associate a white person with the box playing SE and vice versa? In other words, why did these students even distinguish a concrete difference between the two? Where did the stereotype that the SE box was nicer and gave better presents and the AAL box needed their crayons more, generate? Did someone lead these students to believe that these boxes were different? And if so, who? Can we change the way these students stereotype, and if so, how? Finally, can the teachers that hold negative views toward including AAL in the classroom be compared to the students in this study?