by Jacqueline Mallais
This week on Instagram @TEACHFORTHECULTURE posted “you could have ‘perfect english’ and still be ineffective in reaching and teaching the youth you are trying to reach.” Thousands responded to the post and the hashtags #CantColonizeTheseSounds! #EmbraceWhomYouAreAndTheLanguageThatComesWithThat #AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) #Patois and #theirlanguage. The discussion surrounding the post was passionate and clear that the ideas of language and power are a very real issue in education today.
Linguistic prestige is directly related to power and all that it implies and these educators were highly aware of the consequences language-use choice had on their students. Some mentioned how their students opened up more and participated more when their teacher went “island” as they called it, because it made them feel like they were a part of a social group that valued them and the language they spoke. Some mentioned that teachers in certain districts would be fired for using “substandard” English. And still others spoke of a guilt when they accidentally code-switched in front of students.
The language of the dominant social group clearly carries prestige. I never more clearly understood this than when I followed the thread and found myself listening to Jamila Lyiscott’s Ted Talk titled 3 Ways To Speak English. In four minutes, she explains that the status of a language is what you can do with it and we need to not only be aware of this but change the way we think about and value different language variations and code switching.
With a snap election at play here in Canada last week, the topic of code switching brought to mind an interesting commentary on how politicians code switch. The discussion was from our last election four years ago and it was about how Jagmeet Singh was an expert at code switching and how it worked to his advantage. He is able to authentically relate to a wide range of voters of different ages and different backgrounds. He never comes off as sounding performative. South of the border, Barrack Obama did the same. He is able to customize his word choice and register moving easily between discourse on policy and greeting basketball coaches, sounding both authentic and relatable. These politicians are able to do this so effectively because it is truly who they are. Anyone else attempting these switches just sound disingenuous. We see here just how connected the languages we speak are connected with our identities and how they wield power.
In further following comments on the Instagram post, Dr. April Baker-Bell is mentioned along with her book Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, and Pedagogy. I am now eagerly awaiting my Amazon package. The book has been lauded as an invaluable resource for everyone in education today. I can’t wait to look into and put into practice more antiracist language pedagogies. Learning about and being aware of language variations and their value is imperative for all teachers. Deciding what to do with them is the challenge. What do we do with a variation? https://clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poems/what-do-we-do-variation
Hi Jacqueline,
I am very impressed with your post. I enjoyed how you contextualized the power dynamics and prestige that revolve around certain language variations. Languages and how we speak them are inseparable with who we are. Shedding light on the negative impacts of standardizing and stereotyping variations in the English language may help break this cycle of inequity created by the dominant group. 3 ways to speak English by Jamila Lyiscott illustrates the importance of erasing our preconceived ideas of “broken English”. Her personal experience with linguistic identities is touching and exposes the importance of equity and inclusion of language variations. I completely agree that, as teachers, we must be aware of language variations and their value. How do we treat language variations in the classroom? It’s important to come from a place of understanding and inclusion, as we don’t want to make students feel like the way they speak is unacceptable, bad, and/or inferior. You are right, putting theories to practice is always a challenge. I too am looking forward to learning more about language variations in the classroom! Thank you for this great post!
Elizabeth M.
Thank you for the compliment. I have continued to think about how to bring more language variations into the classroom and the answer was right in this post. The 3 Ways to Speak English is a great starting point for a class discussion.
Hi Jacqueline!
I loved reading your post. I don’t know why, but it really hit close to home. During my elementary school years, I attended an after school program in my neighbourhood where many of students including myself were from different ethnic backgrounds, including the staff. Often times I would hear these variations of English and I still remember to this day that Ms. Vai (the lunch lady who prepared our snacks), spoke in an ‘island’ variation as you mentioned in your post. I loved hearing her speak because although it was different, it felt very comforting and inviting. To this day when I hear someone speak that variation of English, I am reminded of Ms. Vai but also the great community that I had attending the after school program. Language is tied with identity and I think if teachers were to prioritize or deny one variation over the other, we are dismissing a significant component of our students’ identity. As teachers our goal is encourage and validate these variations, but often times there is a negative stigma with using these variations, especially in education settings. I believe one way we can attempt to place importance on other ‘Englishes’ is to explore the history and cultural context of these variations and what kind of feeling these variations evoke for the speakers. By breaking apart these negative perceptions, we can hopefully foster students to embrace all their variations.
Thank you for providing such a positive example of the effects of language variation and identity. Here’s to breaking apart these negative perceptions so we can help students embrace theirs and other’s variations.
Hi Jacqueline! (forgot to leave my name in the previous post)
I loved reading your post. I don’t know why, but it really hit close to home. During my elementary school years, I attended an after school program in my neighbourhood where many of students including myself were from different ethnic backgrounds, including the staff. Often times I would hear these variations of English and I still remember to this day that Ms. Vai (the lunch lady who prepared our snacks), spoke in an ‘island’ variation as you mentioned in your post. I loved hearing her speak because although it was different, it felt very comforting and inviting. To this day when I hear someone speak that variation of English, I am reminded of Ms. Vai but also the great community that I had attending the after school program. Language is tied with identity and I think if teachers were to prioritize or deny one variation over the other, we are dismissing a significant component of our students’ identity. As teachers our goal is encourage and validate these variations, but often times there is a negative stigma with using these variations, especially in education settings. I believe one way we can attempt to place importance on other ‘Englishes’ is to explore the history and cultural context of these variations and what kind of feeling these variations evoke for the speakers. By breaking apart these negative perceptions, we can hopefully foster students to embrace all their variations.
Rahman. S.
Thank you for sharing the video TED video, it was powerful. As a student in the SLE program, I have been learning about bilingualism, multilingualism, trilingualism, plurilingualism, translingualism, etc. When Jamila Lyiscott says she is a “trilingual orator” I cannot help but think about how we are all plurilingual if we take the stance that there is not just one correct or proper way of speaking English. The world at large, perpetuated by big corporations and fueled by academia’s required English tests (ex: TESOL), thinks there are only a few proper ways to speak English. You need to sound English (whether that be American, Canadian, or British) for people to not point out how “good your English is”. A video recently shared by a classmate in another class is another excellent way to show how languages are valued in relation to English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QrGsxeEq8&feature=youtu.be
Hannah Southwood
Hannah, what a great video! Sadly, it is an all too familiar story. I used a similar one in some secondary 2 classes when were studying the short story All Summer In A Day. We take a deep dive into the theme of difference and peoples expectations of differences. I now have an additional lens to look at the story and the idea of difference. Thanks!