In Chapter 5 of The Skin That We Speak, entitled "Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts," Michael Stubbs asks the question "Does a child's language affect his success or failure at school? And if so, how?" He also inquires into a teacher's language and how it affects a student's learning. He brings to light the varying dialects of England, and the class-laden ramifications that come with speaking them, in the eyes of the people.
Stubbs explains that there are many, many linguistic stereotypes that are ingrained in children regarding class and the way one speaks. Children regard those who do not speak "standard english" as inferior, a symptom that is precipitated by teachers admonishing children in the classroom. The problem is, there is no "Standard English" unless one is referring to the accent and manner of the people who claim to be speaking it. There is also no linguistic basis for the notion that those who are impoverished living in rural and urban areas alike speak a somehow more inferior dialect from the standard. In fact, English is an "International Language" with standardized rules for writing but at the same time is used for any number of different situations where modification in the way one speaks would be appropriate. Rather than having a hardline, rigid, "correct" way to speak, English has many, many dialects, all with their very own rules and functions. Teachers must learn how to address their students' language needs, and determine the best manner for teaching them the information necessary for the course, in the most optimal way for the student to learn. My inquiry is to the fact that a teacher probably cannot complete an entire lesson 30 different times if the situation called for the teacher to address each student's individual needs. There may be some situations where the information may not have been transmitted properly because of how the teacher spoke. But what if the teacher acknowledges it, and is unable to address each child's need? Do they fail? Do teacher's just have to accept that? Or can more be done to to eliminate sociolinguistic stereotyping and dissent towards those who speak differently from you?
Ch.3 Response
ReplyDeleteIn the third chapter of The Skin That We Speak, Lisa Delpit endeavors to understand why she had such an emotional response to her daughter’s acquisition of AAV at her new school. The other question she wanted addressed was to find out why her daughter was able to “pick up” AAV so quickly, while African American students struggle to adopt Standard English.
I found this chapter to be relevant to the inquiries posited in this response, because the majority of the chapter is focused on what a teacher can do to insure success in teaching a second dialect. The focus of the previous inquiry was on what a teacher should do if she understands each individual student’s needs but is unable to address them. Certainly teachers would be able to raise awareness against sociolinguistic stereotyping, and they may even be able to eliminate the negative assessment that is bound to language by effectively teaching SE through the dialect of their students. Delpit asserts that four factors are needed for a teacher to be effective: identifying with the students, validating their mother dialect, encouraging them, and entertaining them. She argues that if students are more relaxed and in a less judgmental environment they will thrive and adopt the language more readily. She also stresses the importance of making language relevant to the human experience, as opposed to teaching language strictly through “worksheets and textbooks” (40). She partly attributes the difficulty students’ face adopting SE to the lack of nonstandard English speakers represented in the school’s curriculum. Delpit’s observation regarding students’ interest in hair she developed entire lessons that related to that curiosity. She suggests that teachers “find the students’ interest and build an academic programs around them” so that they do not have to “accept” the failure of their students (45). I would like to close with Delpit’s own words regarding what will occur if teachers invest in student learning: “What happens when we do so, when we convince them that they come from brilliance, when we encourage them to understand their amazing potential? When they recognize that we believe in them, then they come to trust us, to accept us, to identify with us, and to emulate us. They will come, as Maya came, to adopt aspects of who we are, including our language”( emphasis added 46).
Another great exchange. Michael, you raise a reasonable question and Jessica, you answer it admirably. To add to that answer from my experience, I'd say that you're not going to be dealing with 30 distinct dialects in the average classroom. Although no two speakers are exactly alike, granted, we tend to fall into groups in which our speech is pretty similar. The typical EBR classroom might have 2 or 3 distinct dialects, which hopefully sounds a lot more workable than 30. Individualizing is great, and possible in lots of ways, but in the case of language, I think I agree that it'd be a bit unweildy.
ReplyDelete