by Eva Neufeld
As students we should be able to mix our unique dialects and find out what variety of English we are most comfortable using. As Young states, “everybody mix the dialect they learn at home with whateva other dialect or language they learn afterwards.” I am going to discuss that if teachers dock off points for not using Standard English it could be seen as prejudice. The school system preaches diversity and inclusivity until some kids want to write the way they speak and then they get a big, fat F on a normal paper.
There are so many dialects and varieties of English used within schools today. One of the most popular is AAVE, African American Vernacular English, or Black English. In many schools, mine included, a popular novel that students read is “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. This novel is written in AAVE and is a good way for students to be exposed to different dialects through literature. Teachers test students on this serious piece of literature, but then dock off points when black students use AAVE in a paper responding to the novel.
I would have to agree with both Young and Fish and say there should be a good balance within the school system regarding instructing varieties of English. Students should be exposed to literature in a different dialect, but there most definitely should be a limit to the exposure. White students should not be allowed to appropriate different varieties of English such as AAVE. They should be exposed to them though. Reading literature with different dialects and learning the backgrounds and culture tied to each dialect should be implemented in the basic school curriculum. Then students that actively use these dialects should be able to use the way they speak to help their writing. That is not to say that standard English grammar should not be taught, but it should not be established as the only acceptable way to write and speak.
Everyone’s dialect is their own and teaching students to display their point most effectively while using their own dialect to achieve it should be every teacher’s priority. Who gets to decide what is academic in the school system? Since every dialect follows its own set of rules, every dialect should be seen as legitimate and should be graded by teachers as equal. The only exception to this would be if the student used a dialect opposite to the one specifically asked to be used or the one being instructed in class.
Going back to every dialect being legitimate, Merriam Webster recently added AAVE terms “finna” and “chile” to the dictionary (Caldwell). For a teacher to take off points because a student used these words would be considered prejudice. On the other hand, if the student is taking a specific standard English grammar course, the teacher would have to dock the student if standard English was not used. There is a fine line between what could be seen as prejudice and what is not, since there isn’t any legislature in the school system that talks about the use of different dialects, such as AAVE, in assignments. Such legislation needs to be implemented.
In his article Fish states that “you’re not going to be able to change the world if you are not equipped with the tools that speak to its present condition. You don’t strike a blow against a power structure by making yourself vulnerable to its prejudice.” I can see why he would say this, but I disagree. If this statement were completely true it would mean that anyone that didn’t speak standard English couldn’t change the world and historically nothing would change. President Obama code-meshed quite often during his time as president. An article written by the Harvard Business Review mentions how even though code-switching was “crucial for his [Obama’s] professional advancement, code-switching often comes at a great psychological cost” (McCluney). Relating this to the school system, students could have a hard time switching between their dialects and standard English, which could create a strain on their learning and grades.
The school system needs to be more inclusive of dialects such as AAVE, since “like most language varieties, African American English exhibits inherent variability, encompassing a range from standard to vernacular (cf. Arthur Spears 2001), but stylizations most often make use of features associated with African American Vernacular English, filtered through hip hop and pop cultural representations of Blackness” (Smokoski). AAVE is used widely outside of the school setting by black individuals and even white individuals who appropriate and mock it. Therefore it is extremely important for school systems to properly educate and expose students on how to use whatever variety of English they are most comfortable with.
You might be asking yourself, “well why does this affect me?” or you might not even directly realize that you most likely code-mesh everyday. Regardless if you are consciously deciding too, code-switching is often present when you go from a professional to comfortable setting, school to home, or even just speaking with two different people. So why shouldn’t students be able to code-mesh in their writing?
The article “And Still the Children Suffer: The Dilemma of Standard English, Social Justice, and Social Access” states that the main dilemma surrounding code-switching or code-meshing is how “the educational establishment including teachers, administrators, reading specialists, textbook manufacturers, and standards and test creators respond to vernacular speakers through a deficit lens, marking vernacular grammatical traits as errors” (Wheeler). This “deficit lens” creates a tense atmosphere where teachers are repressing their students’ creativity and freedom to write how they want. Being able to write how you speak, without fearing a lower grade, is vital to figuring out exactly what dialect you are most comfortable using.
Works Cited
Caldwell, Brandon. “‘Finna,’ ‘Chile,’ & Other AAVE Terms Are Officially Words According To Webster’s Dictionary.” 97.9 The Box, 12 Mar. 2021, theboxhouston.com/10224514/finna-chile-officially-words-websters-dictionary.
Fish, Stanley. “What Should Colleges Teach?” New York Times, New York Times, 2009, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/what-should-colleges-teach.
McCluney, Courtney. “The Costs of Code-Switching.” Harvard Business Review, 28 Jan. 2021, hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching.
Smokoski, Hanna L., “Voicing the Other: Mock AAVE on Social Media” (2016). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/708
Wheeler, Rebecca. “And Still the Children Suffer: The Dilemma of Standard English, Social Justice, and Social Access.” College of Charleston Libraries Off-Campus Access, Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
Young, Vershawn Ashanti. “Should Writers Use They Own English?” Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010. JSTOR, ir.uiowa.edu.