The issue of dialect and education and, in particular, what dialect is correct to use in the classroom has generated a debate in schools. “Linguistic research defines a dialect, or language variety, as a variety of a language that is associated with a particular regional or social group.” Contrary to popular belief, dialect is not a lesser or ungrammatical way of speaking. All dialects are logical even though they may vary in pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary (Godley, Sweetland, Wheeler, Minnici & Carpenter, 2006). Some people may say standard dialect is the only way, people may say that it’s best to welcome non-traditional dialects or, some think that having bi-dialectal classrooms is the best and benefits all students. Bi-dialectal means
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Many assumptions are made about the pronunciations, grammar, and vocabulary used by diverse students, and some may even call it inappropriate. It is difficult to get an educator to get past their belief that these dialects are incorrect. These beliefs tend to be stabilized overtime which causes these educators to be resistant to change. Something that educators can do to get past their resistance is look at their own language variations. For example, an educator could examine their own oral and written language and seek out differences in the way they speak orally upon different audiences. According to Godley, et al …show more content…
Teachers realized that their spoken language was not as “standard” as they had thought (p. 32). When an educator can see their language differences, they may be able to appreciate the dialect variations of their students as a more positive thing. Another way to overcome this resistance is to teach the educators that there is variation in every language. Educators need to be competent in the area of language and have knowledge on the subject before they are going to be able to believe that non-standard speakers can be just as successful as standard speakers. This will result in much better classroom communication and
Many assumptions are made about the pronunciations, grammar, and vocabulary used by diverse students, and some may even call it inappropriate. It is difficult to get an educator to get past their belief that these dialects are incorrect. These beliefs tend to be stabilized overtime which causes these educators to be resistant to change. Something that educators can do to get past their resistance is look at their own language variations. For example, an educator could examine their own oral and written language and seek out differences in the way they speak orally upon different audiences. According to Godley, et al …show more content…
Teachers realized that their spoken language was not as “standard” as they had thought (p. 32). When an educator can see their language differences, they may be able to appreciate the dialect variations of their students as a more positive thing. Another way to overcome this resistance is to teach the educators that there is variation in every language. Educators need to be competent in the area of language and have knowledge on the subject before they are going to be able to believe that non-standard speakers can be just as successful as standard speakers. This will result in much better classroom communication and