Cultural Attitudes In Middle School

would get tongue tied. There was one instance in particular that I remember when he had to speak with an insurance company about an accident. Someone had hit him from the rear and he had to describe in detail what happened. I could feel his anxiety as soon as he started to speak to the agent over the phone. My mother was making comments in the background about how he should have written down exactly what he was going to say because he seemed so flustered and tongue tied. As a result of these disastrous telephone encounters, he would avoid answering the phone and he would never make a telephone call unless it was absolutely necessary. Similarly, my brother suffers from the same communication anxiety as my father. In my opinion, my brother’s responses to his anxiety are more severe because he adds a subtle stutter and tries to mask it with a nervous laughter. When he speaks to anyone outside of his immediate family, he will say a few words and then start a distinct laugh to try to end the conversation quickly. Since I no longer see him on a regular basis, he has started to use this pattern with me as well. Additionally, he will take one word and start repeating it four or five times until he can formulate a string of words to get through the conversation. I think he use to avoid going to family functions because of his difficulties with …show more content…
These attitudes may present problems for students who are perceived as speaking in a stigmatized variety. It can be harmful for teachers to base their impressions of students on linguistic ability over other sources of information. It is quite easy to place an immediate judgement on students without considering a variety of their demonstrated capabilities. It is imperative that teachers realize that all pupils have strengths and weaknesses and they should not alter their teaching plan until they have adequately assessed the students’