Is there a specific Workplace Language?

In Judith Baker's Trilinguilasm, Baker talks about her classroom experiences in studying her students' home languages along with her students. She describes how her students feel more comfortable learning Standard English once they realize how their own home languages fit into their lives and that these forms of English are not unwelcome, only that there is a difference and there is a certain time to use them.

Baker brings up that there is not specific term for the language that we use in the work place. She calls it a technical kind of language that may be specific to each profession. (At least that's what I think she is saying.) I found that her experiments in getting her students to speak in a work-place manner resulted in the students speaking formal English. What is the difference between our work-place speak and formal English, then? Is it perhaps the level of respect one might use when speaking to a superior; or is it the manner one uses when presenting a project? Is the work-place language that the students used any different from formal English or their home languages or street talk? Some of the scenarios did include students using non-formal English, after all. I consider language used in the workplace SE, usually, unless the workplace is one that is very comfortable and relaxed where SE would not be necessary. What differentiates a work-place language from a form of English that is already used elsewhere? Considering the many types of workplaces, I personally do not think that there can possibly be one specific term for language in the workplace.

Inquiry 4: Judith Baker

After reading Judith Baker’s chapter, I found myself wondering how educated my English teachers had been on this subject of speaking different “Englishes.” I wish that my teachers had had a more open mind about these things. I wonder then if this was the case, my classmates and I wouldn’t have such linguistic insecurity, and we would be able to spit out what we are trying to say in a clear and forthright manner.

Judith Baker’s ideas build upon Lisa Delpit’s that we read in chapter three. They both have the same notion that “When formal English no longer threatens to demean them, students are more willing to master it.” However, she brings us insider her classroom to show us her teaching techniques and strategies to make students feel less insecure about their own language and more willing to learn “standard” English. I found her projects and studies interesting as she delves and further questions the influence of standard English on dialect speakers. She shows us how important this is in the students’ making the decision for them to learn Standard English. As teachers of English, we will constantly have to remind ourselves of these facts. How can we keep these ideas in the forefront of our minds and remain open to the different dialects of our students while teaching them the rules of grammar and the “correct” way to speak and write?

She pinpoints the three main “forms” of English of which we’ve been speaking in class, her “trilingualism”; which is home, formal, and professional English. We learn to code switch between these three forms and become more aware of them as we get older. Is this a natural instinctive learning? I have observed a few instances where there are those who are less aware of code switching. Is it something also taught?