Michael Stubbs’s chapter titled “Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts” studies the stereotypes that can be associated with someone’s language. Some assumptions that can be made through someone’s language include their social class, background, and education. Stubbs’s study examines the relationship between language and perception occurring in Great Britain. In this chapter, Stubbs makes clear the linguistic idea that no way of speaking is better than another, and that all speakers of a language style shift from formal to casual style.
Stubbs claims that “we ought to be aware of the power of such social stereotyping” (67). According to Stubbs, it very natural to immediately make assumptions about people based upon their language. As future teachers, we need to be aware of this danger because we would never want to alienate one student from another based upon such silly assumptions. Just because a student may not speak well, does not mean that the student is not intelligent. This goes the same for students who do speak well.
In this reading, Stubbs answered a question that I have tossed around previously. He says that it is important to warn our students about the “conventions of English usage” (75). Stubbs uses the example that when a student writes to a prospective employer, the student must adapt to the “social occasion” (75). Previously, I understood the idea that we don’t want to disrespect a student’s spoken language because there really is no way of speaking that is better than another. But, I knew that there are situations where a person is expected to act, speak, or write in a certain manner. Stubbs’s statements pertaining to my questions cleared a lot of things up for me. Now, I wonder how teachers can teach this idea of code switching without offending anyone’s language usage?
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ReplyDeleteLisa Delpit, editor of The Skin That We Speak and author of Chapter 3: No Kinda Sense, also addresses the issue of codeswitching out of appropriateness. She goes further to address two questions: "What is the connection between my emotional response to Maya's new-found language (1) and the fact that schools fare so dismally in teaching the standard dialect (2)?" (47)
ReplyDeleteShe, too, is discouraged by her daughter Maya's use of African American English when Maya attends a new school. But as a result, Maya flourishes as a young woman. She becomes more confident and tells her mother not to worry that she knows "how to code switch." (39)
By watching Maya, Delpit comes to the realization that "there is a reason our first language is our mother tongue." Furthermore, by rejecting the native tongue, we are rejecting the student's very core, the family, those individuals to first nurture the child. "And in the African American community, talking about someone's mother is the worst form of insult!" (47)
Danielle, my question was also your question - how does our learning apply? How can we bring this knowledge to the classroom without stepping on any toes? Lisa Delpit has an answer:
"We must embrace the children, their interests, their mothers, and their language. We must treat all with love, care, and respect. We must make them feel welcomed and invited by allowing their interests, culture, and history into the classroom. We must reconnect them to their own brilliant and gain their trust so that they will learn from us. We must respect them, so that they feel connected to us. Then, and only then, might they be willing to adopt our language form as one to be added to their own." (48)
My only hope is that, once we are teachers, we can instill this atmosphere within or classrooms, one of trust and learning. If we can create such a place, maybe from our successes, our efforts cannot and will not be ridiculed
(Removed the first because of an error.)
Great exchange. I'm glad that our readings and discussions are getting at some of your questions, and particularly glad that you're both identifying them incisively. I think you're right, Anne, that Delpit offers us some pretty powerful answers. But in doing so, she also presents us with a task: what, exactly, will this look like in my classroom? Because it is, after all, a highly individualized thing, the way we welcome, respect, and care about others. How can we each draw upon our authentic selves in order to create an atmosphere in which students are safe AND challenged, respected AND held to high standards?
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