10/22

This weeks readings seemed to center around one important thing…language. I was thoroughly pleased after reading Bomer’s chapter because I think he is a very progressive thinker and I am sometimes shocked that what I’m reading is actually coming from him. It makes me feel like I am definitely at the right school and in the right program. On page 267 Bomer writes,

Students need to learn ways of thinking about language variation that will allow them to respect other citizens across differences. They need to learn to think about language variation in order to understand the intelligence and value of linguistic patterns different from their own. For students from linguistic minority communities, that might involve learning about the patterns of their community, learning to value those patterns, and also learning to see the difference between those patterns and ones in a different community. That might even provide them with control of which language patterns they employ in different contexts. (Bomer 267-268)

I think Bomer is absolutely right in that teachers need to help students who speak other languages (including AAVE) value those various languages. And this might definitely give them a sense of agency and give them a critical outlook of their language, other minority languages, and the dominant language of the U.S.

I have only just begun thinking differently about my own language background, and what I’ve learned has given me a lot more confidence and power in regards to the languages I speak that I did not have before. Being Haitian, most people assume that you speak French, granted it’s the official language of the country and a lot of Haitians do speak it as their primary language, I am not fluent in French. Nonetheless, as a child I knew there was some prestige abut “French” and I would tell everyone that it was the primary language in my household in lieu of what we really spoke which was Haitian-Creole. I was almost embarrassed of that language because I knew the more educated and wealthy Haitians rarely spoke creole, and I was afraid that my family would be viewed in a negative way (even though my parents and their families were very poor and as a result could not afford even what we would call a middle school education). On the other hand, people looked at me differently when I told them I spoke French. It was almost because I was Black and spoke French, I had to be something special. Furthermore, my experience with aave was much different. Because I went to schools with mostly African American students who spoke aave it was the dominant language for me. In second grade I moved to Miami from a much more affluent area in a city called Ft. Lauderdale where the kids I went to school with were mostly white and spoke standard English. When I got to the school in Miami I was teased incessantly for speaking “proper” or “acting white” so I made it a priority to learn aave just to fit in. Over the years aave has become my primary language, speaking it (in addition to creole) makes me feel so much more at home and like myself. So because I have had these experiences with minority vs. the dominant language, I think it makes me really appreciate Bomer’s ideas in this chapter. I applaud him for urging teachers to get students who speak other languages to value and be empowered by those languages rather than see them as a problem that might hinder their success.

            Bomer goes on to write that; “it is also important that students from dominant groups learn respect for diverse forms. It’s not enough just to sit comfortably with one’s privilege (268)”. He couldn’t have said it better; students from dominant groups need to respect other languages because they will represent the next generation of thinkers so it is imperative that they are exposed to these ideas early on. It also helps if those who speak the dominant language value other languages because they have the most power in helping to legitimize these languages.

            The other readings supported the value of language in our classrooms as all of them pointed to the importance of teaching or learning about various languages. I really enjoyed reading “Do you Speak Texan” because when I moved to Texas just a couple of months ago I expected to hear the Texas accents that are depicted in movies in t.v shows but to my surprise I have not heard even a slight accent from anyone. The dilemma is that the accent and dialect is becoming less popular for the same reasons I hid my language growing up and this a great example of why we should teach children to value all languages and to question the superiority of popular languages. The rest of the articles focused on English language learners and types of instruction that would be better suited for them in the English classroom. All in all, I liked that these articles forced me to think about how I would approach these students in my classroom, and how my experience as an English language learner would affect these approaches.