Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom
Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom
By: Sarah Nicholas
Teachers have been concerned about their students' dialect and vernacular for ages. The struggle in regards to wanting to correct students' use of English that doesn't necessarily align with "standard English" is a continuing issue. A child can speak in a vernacular dialect that may appear grammatically incorrect in the classroom-but they are actually speaking correctly in their home discourse community. If a teacher can draw upon the strengths of an urban learner, they can "...honor linguistic and cultural diversity, all while fostering students' mastery of the Language of Wider Communication" (Wheeler 471). When teachers correct their students vernacular language and culture, they are creating a barrier between the child's home and school.Traditional Language Arts Fails Many African American Students
Statistics show that many African American students (or other minority language children) are struggling to perform well on standardized tests. The reason why this is the case revolves around various issues including "...language and culture, poverty, distribution of goods and services, the physical conditions of school buildings, the training of teachers, and ethnic and linguistic bias in standardized tests" (Wheeler 472). A lot of African American students speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is very different from the English spoken in schools. To put it very plainly, a teacher is more likely to consider a child who speaks AAVE as less intelligent and slower than a child who speaks standard English. Standard English is seen as "good" while non-standard English is seen as "bad".Dialect: A variety of the language associated with a particular regional or social group (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 1998, p. 350). This means that "standard English" is a dialect of English.
Register: How language varies by specific speech situations (newspaper headlines, rituals, recipes, technical writing, and even baby talk).
Vernacular: Varieties of a language that are not classified as standard dialects (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 1998, p. 13). Vernaculars are typically disregarded and viewed as "less than".
How to Move From Correction to Contrast
One way that educators can alter their view on dialects is by codeswitching. Codeswitching is when you chose the type of language you use based on the appropriate context. Different dialects or language patterns are just as important as "standard English", and it is important that your students are familiar with this language as well as "proper" English. When you can engage your students in critical thinking of diverse language varieties, you are breaking apart the destructive myths about variations in language and enabling students to analyze its patterns. Codeswitching and a knowledge of other languages can also benefit children during the writing process as children can choose a range of language styles to enhance the character they are writing about.Although the results are not clear as to whether dialect itself hinders African-American students from reading standard English, conflict between the student's culture at home and at school are a solid example of how schools are failing African-American students.
Questions to Consider
1. As a future educator, how can we make students feel comfortable using AAVE when they have previously been discouraged from it by past teachers?
2. How can you incorporate codeswitching into a Language Arts lesson with your students?
2. How can you incorporate codeswitching into a Language Arts lesson with your students?
3. Do you think that not correcting students' who speak AAVE will be a struggle for you as an educator? Why or why not? If you feel it might be difficult not to, what are you going to do to ensure this isn't the case when you have your own classroom?
Citations
Wheeler, R. S. (2001). From home speech
to school speech: Vantages on reducing
the achievement gap in inner city
schools.The Virginia English Bulletin,
51, 4–16.
Wolfram, W., Adger, C. T., & Christian, D.
(Eds.). (1999). Dialects in schools and
communities. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
When I first start teaching, I think that not correcting students who speak AAVE will be difficult for me. I think it will be difficult because I have always been used to being expected to speak and write “professionally.” I have been used to teachers and just people higher up always expecting students to speak and write a certain way and correcting students when they don’t speak or write in that way. For me, I feel that it will be almost a habit that I will have to break. I think that when I am a teacher, I am going to not only have to remind myself that I don’t speak perfect standard English, or write it, but I will have to reiterate to my students that most people don’t speak perfect standard English. Instead of trying to force students to conform to a type of standard English that is not their normal talk, I can create a space where students are free to communicate in natural ways, but create lessons that allow them to be informed on certain English practices that may be needed down the road, or that will be needed for certain assessments and standards.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your view point on this, Olivia. I was always taught to speak and write "professionally", and it was engraved into my brain throughout all of my school years. I remember getting assignments back from my English teachers with many red marks, because I did not use proper punctuation or spell words the way they were supposed to be spelled. So as a future educator, I also feel like this will be a habit that is hard for me to break. It will definitely take me a while to get used to not coach to "perfect standard English".
DeleteI never thought of "standard English" as dialect until now. In fact, I hadn't thought much about dialects of English at all. I do not speak AAVE myself, so I think it will be difficult to present dialects in a way that encourages students to speak the way they do at home, especially when previous teachers have discouraged it. I think one way I could try to encourage these students is to go through my own speech patterns and do an activity with students to help identify their own.
ReplyDeleteFor example, my coworkers will poke-fun at how I say "y'all" to almost all of my customers. I see no reason why "y'all" would suddenly disappear from my vernacular in the classroom. I could model for students that just as I say "y'all", even though it's not "standard English", it doesn't mean I don't know how to speak or how to write. I could then have the students go through different words or phrases they say or that they've heard that don't fit the norm and encourage them to share/use them within the classroom. Hopefully that will encourage my students to expand their knowledge of English, not just "standard English."
Code-switching has always been a subconscious thing for me to do. Now that I'm older, I'm trying to train myself not to do it as much because I feel that it's very inauthentic for me to speak in standard English. I consider AAVE to be my "home language." In high school, everyone in the school, except for 5 students, were black, so pretty much everyone spoke AAVE. My sophomore year, my English teacher called herself doing an activity on the differences between AAVE and standard English. She created a worksheet where she wrote sentences that she thought sounded like AAVE based on the way she heard students talk in the hallways. Our job was to "correct" the sentences (translate them to standard English) and then we discussed whole group why the presented sentences were "wrong." No one in my class did it happily and we recognized racism immediately.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, I refuse to keep my students from using home dialects and languages in my class. I find code-switching to signify students' mastery of multiple dialects with their own distinct grammar rules. I think that AAVE being my main communication form and my experiences with code-switching gives me an advantage in my ability to connect with students with different linguistic backgrounds. I do, however, think it's important to understand how to read and write in standard English. Most important documents are and will continue to be written in standard English and it will be detrimental to students if they aren't able to decipher the meaning of these documents.
Elisha- I am so sorry that you experienced that your sophomore year of highschool. I think that it's so important to bridge the gap between a student's culture at home and their culture at school because you're not going to be able to capture their interest and keep them engaged if not. One thing that I struggled with during class was deciding at what point your students should at least know what Standard English is without diminishing the culture of their home. I mentioned to other people in class that reading this article was very eye-opening to me and was something that I had wished I had read sooner.
Delete"ethnic and linguistic bias in standardized tests" (Wheeler 472). This is a big part of how I think that as a future educator we can make them comfortable with using AAVE. We can contrast that while yes these tests will not use this language, it is still perfectly fine and acceptable. I think some people would be against putting lists of translations from AAVE to standard English. This is useful though because the students may not have the background knowledge of knowing how the word has been altered by AAVE. The list may be initially viewed as trying to assimilate their culture, but I think if it's clear that both are equally valued by you as an educator and in your classroom, then I don't see an issue existing. Past my thoughts, I think you did a really well job of laying out the article and showing why "standard old practices" are failing language arts in the current day Sarah. I'm curious what you would think about having a chart with words in standard English and the AAVE equivalent of it.
ReplyDeleteNoah, I think this is a great step and it is not one I had thought of before. We have talked about allowing students to speak and write how they are most comfortable, while still explaining to them that the standardized tests will not be accepting of AAVE. However, I wonder if having a chart with standard English and the AAVE equivalent's will still hinder students in their confidence in speaking and writing. I think this would require a teacher to be very intentional about explaining that this isn't a "problem" within the classroom community, but that there are still standards to abide by out of the teacher's control and some officials in the DOE aren't as accepting of the various ways of speaking aside from standard English. This could be an opportunity to introduce students to inequities in the educational system as well.
DeleteNoah- I would definitely be interested in having a chart with words in standard english and its AAE equivalent. However, Meagan brings up a great point- I would never want my students to feel "less than" because they don't speak formally like the Standard English equivalent. I think that one way I would go about introducing comparisons between AAE and Standard English is by having my students read phrases that are written in AAE and then discussing what each phrase means and how it is just as valuable as the Standard English equivalent.
DeleteOne way to incorporate code switching into LA is to show how you would write something to a friend versus a teacher. Students don't realize that they are even doing it until you explain it to them directly. It can be a fun activity and you can really learn a lot about how your students write at the same time.
ReplyDelete