Teaching about dialect variations and language in secondary English classrooms

TEACHING ABOUT

DIALECT VARIATIONS

AND LANGUAGE

in SECONDARY ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

Power, Prestige, and Prejudice

1111

1 1

SACH DE AN

NGOAI NGU 20

Michelle D. Devereaux

TEACHING ABOUT

DIALECT VARIATIONS

AND LANGUAGE

IN SECONDARY

ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

Power, Prestige,

and Prejudice

Michelle D. Devereaux

R

Routledge

Ta'lor & Francis Croup

NEW YCHK AND LONDON

First published 2015

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, N Y 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, M ilton Park, Abingdon, O xon 0 X 1 4 4R N

Routledge is an imprint o f the Taylor and Francis Group, an informa business

© 2 0 1 5 Taylor ik Francis

The right o f Michelle D. Devereaux to be identified as author o f

this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77

and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. N o part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,

or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including

photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Tradem ark notice: Product or corporate names may be tradem arks

or registered tradem arks, and are used only for identification and

explanation without intent to infringe.

Library o f Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Devereaux, Michelle D.

Teaching about dialect variations and language in secondary

English classroom s: power, prestige, and prejudice/Michelle D.

Devereaux.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. English language— Study and teaching (Secondary) 2. English

language— Social aspects. 3. Ideology. I. Title.

LB1631.D 45

2014428.0071 '2—d c 2 3 2 0 14015939

ISBN: 978-0-415-81845-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-81846-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-58126-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK

Because o f Paul

CONTENTS

Preface x

Acknowledgments xii

CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1

Three Challenges 2

Definitions in Detail

Language Variation and the New Common

Core State Standards 9

Conclusion 11

UNIT 1: LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES 17

CHAPTER 2 Introduction to Language Ideologies 19

Language Ideologies: What Are They? 20

Teasing Them Out: Power, Society, and Identity 20

Power, Society, and Identity: Embedded Concepts 23

Why Explore Language Ideologies in the

English Classroom? ?4

Teaching Language Ideologies 27

Conclusion 28

Lesson Plan I : Language Ideologies 29

CHAPTER 3 Language and Power 34

Definition of Power 34

Definition: Language and Power 36

Language and Power in the Classroom and in

Students’ Lives 39

vii

Teaching Language and Power in the Classroom 40

Conclusion 50

Lesson Plan 2: Language and Power 51

CHAPTER 4 Language and Society 56

Definition of Society 56

Definition: Language and Society 58

Language and Society in the Classroom and in

Students’ Lives 58

Teaching Language and Society in the Classroom 61

Conclusion 73

Lesson Plan 3: Language and Society 75

CHAPTER 5 Language and Identity 80

Definition of Identity 80

Language and Identity 85

Language and Identity in the Classroom and in

Students’ Lives 86

Teaching Language and Identity in the Classroom 87

Conclusion 95

Lesson Plan 4: Language and Identity 97

UNIT 2: CODE-SW ITCHING AND CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 103

CHAPTER 6 Code-switching 105

Code-switching in the Classroom 107

Code-switching and Literature 109

Code-switching and Writing 111

Code-meshing 113

Conclusion 115

Lesson Plan 5: Code-switching 116

H an d ou t for L esson Plan 5: Role Play 119

CHAPTER 7 Contrastive Analysis 121

Contrastive Analysis in the Classroom 121

Contrastive Analysis and Naming the Dialect 123

Contrastive Analysis and Literature 124

Contrastive Analysis and Writing 128

Conclusion 132

Lesson Plan 6A: Contrastive Analysis—Literature 133

Lesson Plan 6B: Contrastive Analysis—Writing 139

viii CONTENTS

UNIT 3: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 145

CHAPTER 8 Putting It All Together: A Unit Plan 147

Unit Plan: A Raisin in the Sun 148

Language and Identity 161

Language and Society 163

The Embedded Nature of Society and Identity 165

Language and Power 166

Contrastive Analysis 175

Come Out and Say It: Indirect Speech Acts 176

Bloom Ball 178

Explanation of Strategies 182

Epilogue 185

Appendix A: Common Core State Standards 187

Appendix B: Patterns in Dialects: African

American English, Chicano English, and

Southern English 195

Index 207

CONTENTS

PREFACE

During my first year of teaching, I learned how to facilitate conversa￾tions, create effective lesson plans, and support students in their learning

processes because my undergraduate classes had prepared me for these

aspects of teaching. What I w asn’t prepared for w as the m any language

varieties I found in my classroom . I w asn’t prepared for my students’

passion about their home language variety and the resistance they had

tow ards learning Standard English. As a high school English teacher, I

knew my job was to ensure my students’ ability to write and com m unicate

using Standard English, but my students didn’t seem interested.

Standardized tests demand Standard English, but students come to

school speaking a variety of dialects and languages, thus creating a conflict

between students’ language o f nurture and the expectations o f school.

Like me in my first year o f teaching, many teachers see students pushing

against Standard English and don’t understand why. The purpose of this

text is twofold: (1) to explain and illustrate how language varieties

function in the classroom and in students’ lives and (2) to detail

linguistically informed instructional strategies. In this book you will find

lesson plans with reaching notes, an annotated list of com m only taught

literature, discussion questions, writing prom pts, and an instructional

unit— all designed to help you easily teach the concepts presented in this

book. Designed for undergraduate and graduate secondary English

m ethods, language and culture, and linguistics for teachers courses, and

for in-service professional development, this book introduces theory and

clearly builds the bridge to daily classroom practice.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

This hook includes three units: (Unit 1) Language Ideologies, (Unit 2)

Code-switching and Contrastive Analysis, and (Unit 3) Putting It All

Together.

Units 1 and 2 are instructional; they elaborate the concepts presented

in the Introduction and offer ideas for how to bring them into the

classroom . These chapters break down the concepts into manageable,

easy-to-read chunks. Throughout these chapters, I include student work

and quotes to contextualize students’ reactions to these concepts. All

names used throughout this book are pseudonyms. At the end of each

chapter, I include a lesson plan that introduces the chapter’s concept to

your students. Because this book is created with secondary English

teachers in mind (grades 6-12), the lesson plans are written for ninth

grade students, the middle of the secondary spectrum. These lessons can

be easily altered to meet the needs o f students across grades 6-12.

The lesson plans are not scripted; lather, they demonstrate how you

may introduce the ideas in this book. Certainly, you will need to modify

the lesson plans to meet the needs of your own students and curriculum.

These lesson plans have been used multiple times in multiple types of

classroom s, from diverse to homogeneous, from working class to middle

class. They have been purposefully designed to meet the needs of the

variety of students found in secondary classroom s.

The lesson plans include the following components:

1. context (what students should know before you teach the lesson);

2. objectives;

3. Common Core Standards;

4. materials;

5. detailed steps;

6. time frames for each step;

7. handouts (if applicable).

Unit 3 provides a complete instructional unit, using A Raisin in the

Sun as the main text. Although the Common Core Standards name A

Raisin in the Sun as an exemplar text for eleventh grade, I have successfully

used this play in ninth grade classroom s to teach the concepts found in

this book. This unit has a detailed calendar and assignments that integrate

the ideas in Units 1 and 2.

Appendix A shows how the ideas in this book meet the Common

Core Standards, and Appendix B details some common dialectal features

of African American English, Chicano English, and Southern English.

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

If it weren’t for my students, this book would not exist. Because they

have taught me so much over the years, because they always push me

to understand more than I may think I’m ready for, because they humble

me and am aze me, I worked to understand the ideas I share with you

in this book. So I must first thank over 10 years of students who have

come in and out o f my classroom s.

While my students were the catalyst for this book, my friends, fam ily,

and colleagues helped shape and reshape my ideas over the years. Thanks

to my dad for his bright laughter, my momma for her brilliant saves,

my sister for her much-needed perspective, Amy Azano and Elizabeth

Dinkins who helped me find the right w ords, my Hellacious Tangents,

Sara Register and G abe Pline, whose tangents kept me grounded, Dr.

Rebecca Wheeler for her years of support and discerning feedback,

Michelle Rzewnicki for guiding me through the grow ing pains, Sherrye

Tillm an and Am anda O tto for their friendship and their classroom s, and

Jessica Gelston who brought her insight and patience to the early drafts

of this book. I must also thank my am azing colleagues at Kennesaw

State University and the Kennesaw M ountain Writing Project, particularly

Darren Crovitz and Chris Palmer, who supported, challenged, and helped

me refine my ideas. Finally, I would like to thank my editor, N aom i

Silverman, at Routledge for her enthusiasm and support.

xii

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

All teachers have stories of how language, education, and people interact.

Here is one pre-service teacher’s story:

“ Dr. Devereaux, I have a problem .” This young lady, usually bold

and confident, has her head down and is not making eye contact.

“ I don’t know how to say it politically correctly. My students speak

and write ghetto. I don’t know what to do to help them.”

And the story of an experienced teacher:

We are sitting around the lunch table, most of us talking about

our weekends. But Mrs. Sanders sits quietly grading essays.

Suddenly, she slams her pen down and says, “ I am so tired of fixing

these same mistakes! When will students learn that using ‘I be’ or

‘He be’ or ‘She be’ is just not right?”

Let’s not forget the voices of the students and their assumptions:

When I ask the ninth grade students if there is a right and wrong

way to talk, their answers surprise me. Although the students in

the class speak different varieties of English, they all use value￾laden terms to describe language such as “ right” and “ wrong,”

“ polite” and “ im polite.” For example, even though Shaquaja uses

features of African American English in her speech, she labels these

features as “ w rong.” And then there is Dana who believes that

Standard English equates “ good manners” and everything else is

“ im proper.” There are also students like Anixandra who believe

l

that Langston Hughes uses “ half made up w ords” in his poem

“ Lam ent over Love.”

THREE CHALLENGES

M ost likely, if you teach or are preparing to teach secondary English or

if you are a teacher educator, you’ve heard som e of these statem ents.

As the stories on p. 1 illustrate, many students and teachers in secondary

English classroom s seem to be caught in a right/wrong paradigm of

language, especially with the grow ing focus on standardized assessm ents.

At the sam e time, these stories highlight three im portant challenges to

the right/wrong paradigm o f language:

1. N ot all secondary students com e to school speaking and writing in

the language variety of the standardized assessm ent: Standard English.

2. Students and teachers com e to the classroom with clear opinions

about language variations.

3. Students may not understand or appreciate the dialectally-diverse

texts we bring to the classroom .

This book is designed to offer secondary English teachers realistic

resources to meet these challenges.

Challenge #1: “Errors” in Student Writing

When we read our students’ papers and see “ He didn’t have no paper”

and “ She sing in the choir,” it is difficult not to “ correct” their papers,

telling students that they are using multiple negation and that they need

an “ s ” on the verb. When we take out our red pen and correct all of

the “ m istakes,” we are using what Wheeler and Sw ords (2 0 0 4 , 2006,

2010) call the correctionist m odel. The correctionist m odel calls back

to the folklore of the red-penned English teacher, ready to quickly and

steadily mark gram m atical errors as w rong rather than question why

students consistently make the sam e “ errors” in their papers (Shaughnessy,

1977).

But what if we changed the w ay we looked at students’ papers? W hat

if we didn’t see these “ gram m atical problem s” as problem s? In all

actuality, these students are not m aking m istakes in the traditional sense

of the word; these students are using features o f their home language

variety. M any books have addressed elementary school students’ use of

home language varieties in writing (Wheeler and Sw ords, 2 0 0 6 , 2010),

but research has shown that students use features o f their home language

INTRODUCTION

varieties in formal papers through secondary (Horton-Ikard and Pittman,

2010) and post-secondary education (Delpit, 1992; Schierloh, 1991;

T aylor, 1991). Yet the larger society (administrators, parents, test

creators, and business employers) expect schools to ensure all students

com mand Standard English.

Student Pushback

As experience has shown, an English teacher constantly correcting

students’ writing does not help students write in Standard English. In

fact, secondary students may push back when asked to write in Standard

English because they see using Standard English as abandoning their

home variety for the “ fancy” language of Standard English (Alim and

Pennycook, 2007; Ogbu, 1999; Young, 2007).

But what if we didn’t have to ask students to abandon their home

variety? What if we did one better and showed our students the structure

and sense of their home variety, ultimately helping them read when the

time, place, and situation fit the need for Standard English? And what

if we could do all of this while helping students understand the power

and multiplicity of the English language?

Responding to Challenge #1: “Errors” in Student Writing?

The English language is a dynamic, multi-layered language that constantly

changes and evolves. Beyond this, the English language is made up of

many varieties— from African American English, to Chicano English, to

Southern English, and many others. Linguists have long known that all

English language varieties follow rules that are as structured as Standard

English (Baugh, 1999; Labov, 1972; Redd and Webb, 2005; Simpkins and

Simpkins, 1981; Wolfram and Shi 11 i ng-Estes, 2006). And, perhaps most

importantly, your students not only speak and write these English language

varieties, but similar language varieties are in the canonical literature you

teach in class (think of The Adventures o f Huckleberry hum).

But if we don’t “ correct” our students’ use of home language varieties

in formal writing assignments, then what? Research shows that contrastive

analysis and code-switching can help students access Standard English

without abandoning their home language variety. Contrastive analysis

helps students compare and contrast the patterns of their home language

variety with the patterns o f Standard English, clarifying the order and

sense of their home variety as well as the order and sense of Standard

English. Students com pare and contrast the rules of these language

varieties using a T-chart, which will be explained in detail in Chapter 7.

INTRODUCTION