Dialect continuum

Geneva Smitherman has a lot of ideas; some of which I don’t agree with and others which I really don’t agree with. Geneva makes a clear and straightforward argument that black dialects –or any non-white dialects for that matter– of English are being marginalized. That much I agree with. She wishes to see an integration of Black English into the classroom and a removal of the “standard” English. That much I do not. It is easy to make broad declarations of how things down here should work from her…

Description and Analysis of some features of the Hull accent and dialect and how these features differ from Standard English I. Introduction When foreign learners come to the UK at the first time, they are usually surprised to discover that the native speakers seem to speak faster than expected and be different in many ways from the English the foreign learners have learned. It is possibly differences of pronunciation that will directly shock them, foreign learners may also pay attention to…

Monolingual vs. Bilingual Education and Public Schools The United States is currently experiencing large influxes of immigrants in the public education system. Since the majority of these immigrant children speak a language other than English, schools are faced with the burden of educating them in content, language, and culture, with few effective resources. The Supreme Court places immigrant children in the public education system with their ruling that all persons, regardless of documentation,…

linguistic heterogeneity, binaries are constructed that make it possible for individuals to try “styling the Other” or “crossing” to another identity (Rampton, 421). This is relevant to the modern world, to note the “ways in which members use language and dialect in discursive practice to appropriate, explore, reproduce or challenge influential images and stereotypes that they don’t themselves belong to” (Rampton, 421). It is through the idea of crossing that people are able to use their…

Richard Rodriguez believes that the Americanization of a bilingual child will result in their public gain. “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez is a heart-wrenching piece of writing about the full Americanization of Rodriguez resulting in his native language of Spanish being forgotten and the full submersion into the English language. Many of the events Rodriguez faced in his life are present to many other bilingual students’ today. These events that bilingual students’ are facing will strongly influence…

As a kid growing up I never thought about a language being more important than the English language. I would hear people having conversations in English, billboards or signs are in English, articles or journals are written in English, everything surrounding me was in English. English had become the main communication tool in state and all over the world. Whether it’s business, communication, or education, the English language has taken over internationally. I think that the English language…

While some may be inclined to believe certain dialects, (southern, Boston, etc.,) simply demonstrate improper English and grammar, these ways of speaking more often than not follow specific rules and tendencies as concrete as those in standard written English. However, those who are not in tune with the language style of the group typically get treated as outsiders. Furthermore, language transcends just written and spoken word, the content, and style with which a particular group chooses to…

Often times, the bridging approach makes use of dialect readers, translation exercises, and situational appropriateness drills to teach students. In support of the bridging approach, Macedo writes that: Bilingual education, in a sense, must be seen as a medium that constitutes and affirms the historical…

A Closer Look at the Dialect Quiz Dialects differ in different parts of the country. There are even minor differences in dialects in different parts of the same state. Dialects differ depending on cultures. Depending on where you 're from and where you 've lived in the United States, you probably say things a little differently than people from other parts of the country. Josh Katz created a dialect quiz called “How Y’all, Youse, and You Guys Talk” which became popular at one of the nation’s…

variety of social, economic, and cultural backgrounds?” (20) And “Should the school try to uphold language variety, or to modify it, or to eradicate it?” (20). While for academic writing purposes students should be expected to use standard American dialect. It is important to respect the diversity, and it’s also important to understand that learning a language other than your own language is very hard. Allowing students to use or speak their own language takes off a lot of pressure on…