A Nonstandard Approach to Standard English

Abstract

This paper proposes a nonstandard approach to standard English as a second dialect (SESD). It rejects assimilationist ideology as a way of legitimizing the educational experience of language minority groups, advocating instead a pluralist position which views the acquisition of standard English by native speakers of other varieties as "additive bidialectalism" rather than remediation.The paper begins by clarifying "dialect," "creole" and "standard" as necessary background to a discussion of the ideology of linguistic prescriptivism. Research in two areas is then reviewed: (a) studies examining dialectal differences and their influence on cross-dialectal communication, and (b) sociolinguistic research on classroom participation structures involving language minority students. It is concluded that dialectal differences are not trivial, and that culturally appropriate modifications to classroom discourse patterns, such as those implemented in a program for Hawaii Creole English-speaking children, are useful models for other SESD settings. Introduction: The political context of Standard English as a second dialect (SESD)It has become increasingly difficult over the last few years for language professionals to ignore ill-informed public discussions of language and education. In the United States, the US English movement (Donohue 1985) and the proposed English Language Amendment (ELA) to the U.S. Constitution (see Marshall, 1986, andJudd, 1987, for excellent discussions), in particular, pose a serious challenge to the progressive philosophy of TESOL. Although the TESOL organization has recently reaffirmed its strong support for cultural and linguistic pluralism through its adoption of a resolution opposing the ELA, more remains to be done. There is a need for substantive discussion of both the ideological and empirical issues involved in language policy formulation and implementation.Such discussion must extend beyond the important, long-standing debate over bilingualism and various forms of bilingual education, however, to include issues concerning schooling in and through Standard (British, American, Canadian, Australian, etc.) English as a second dialect (SESD) for speaY.t!rs of minority varieties of the various national English standards. Recognizing these varieties as valid systems of communication, the present paper adopts a "nonstandard" approach to SESD. It rejects assimilationist ideology as the only way of viewing the experience of minorities in the US, arguing instead for a pluralistic position in which the acquisition of standard English (SE) is seen as additive bidialectalism rather than as remediation.Aside from the furor over Black English Vernacular (BEV) during the 1960s and '70s, insufficient attention has been paid to minority varieties of English or to the educational life chances of the children who speak them. A new generation of teachers has appeared in US public schools since the period of the Civil Rights Movement, many of whom have had little meaningful exposure to the history of their curren...

“Mista, Are You in a Good Mood?”: Stylization to Negotiate Interaction in an Urban Hawai’i Classroom

“…However, the interactional framings in which he uses stylization show it to also be a powerful, spontaneous, and often affiliative resource in managing multilingual student-teacher interaction in the contemporary, urban classroom. This is also in line with research that has pointed to the positive educational outcomes of valuing stigmatized languages as a resource in classroom interaction (Cummins 2009;Kamwangamalu 2010;Rubdy 2007;Sato 1989).…”

“…HC is also used alongside Hawai'i English and MUSE both in the media (radio, television, performing arts) and the linguistic landscape (street signs, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and advertisements) of Hawai'i (see Higgins in press;Hiramoto 2011). Historically perceived as a marker of local (non-white) and working-class identity, it has been seen as a barrier to socio-economic mobility and with a general sense of stigmatization when used in educational and professional contexts (Sato 1989). Despite this public awareness of HC's stigmatization, however, there are many accounts of speakers using it in a wide range of contexts and expressing pride in using it as a marker of local identity (Higgins & Furukawa 2012;Marlow & Giles 2010).…”

Consuming the consumers

“…Romaine 1999;Sato 1989Sato , 1991Sato , 1994, except in limited venues such as comedy shows or local literature. This paper has presented data from recent local television advertisements and discussed the role of language therein.…”

Reviews

“…In showing the language distribution in the seven largest towns of PNG on p.84, he uses figures from 1971 (but see Ahai 1989). In discussing the use of Hawaiian Creole in education (pp.89-90), he uses a 1965 reference (see Sato 1985Sato , 1989Sato , 1991. And M refers to information about Maori literacy from Benton (1981) as "recent changes in attitudes and policies" (p.218) (see Benton 1991;Earle 1993).…”