Everyday we teach our students how to read, write, and speak appropriately in conversation. We correct mispronunciations, teach vocabulary words that will improve writing, and ask students to repeat things they say incorrectly using ‘proper English.’ It is necessary that students meet these demands and learn ‘proper English’ to be taken seriously in society. Sadly, people are often stereo-typed as uneducated or inadequate just because they do not speak the language perfectly. Students must always strive to be the person that society wants them to be, who talks the talk that is expected and accepted. I assume that often times they feel like they can not be the person they are. As an educator, we must encourage all our students to be proud of their heritage, and to share their culture with other students. In order to get our students to do this, we have to be inviting of their culture and interested in it. If we reject their home language, culture, or their differences in general, then the students will feel like we are rejecting them (Delpit, 2002). Students should never feel like they are rejected.
Mastering different languages is a difficult task for everybody, and I can not even imagine how difficult it must be for those students in our class who are ESL learners and come from a very different culture. I have been very fortunate to work at a school where the majority of students are Hispanic, and there is an equal amount of African-American and White students. These students not only have to learn the basics of the English dialect which we use in conversation with friends, but they also have to be able to use proper English in their writing and when they are talking to people of importance. Sometimes I pass by a group of students speaking Spanish, their native language, and I can hear a teacher or somebody tell them, “We speak English. Talk in English.” Yet when these students get home, they are strictly only allowed to speak their native language. What are these students to do? They want to please everybody, so there is nothing else they can do other than assume “the mask of language” (Dowdy, 2002). They are forced to speak proper English at school and Spanish at home.
The language that students speak to their friends, teachers, family, and church are all very different, and they must unconsciously realize which language is appropriate. People have to be able to change, or ‘code switch,’ their language in an instant (Delpit, 2002). Even my language is different at home than it is at work, school, or other places of importance. If one would forget the appropriate language to use with their friends and used the incorrect one, they might be ridiculed and teased by others. In the video, Michelle Obama commented that when she spoke in proper English as a child, the other children teased her and made derogatory comments. This behavior occurs everyday, but it is unacceptable and needs to be stopped. It is a constant struggle to teach students to accept and embrace students for who they are, no matter how different they may be.
If we are interested in learning about students’ culture and language, then I strongly believe they will pay the same respect. It is necessary for students to be able to speak and write using proper English. What can we do to help them be more open to learning? If we expect them to be open to learn the proper English language, then we should be more open to learning their native language. Often times I will ask my Hispanic students to translate a phrase or word for me that I can use in the classroom. I found that the students really enjoy teaching me their language, and they also enjoy laughing at me when I say something incorrectly! In one of the Pre-K classrooms I have worked in this year, we taught the children the days of the week and the months of the year in Spanish and English. This teaches children at an early age to be accepting of one another and to be open-minded about other cultures.
We are a nation of many languages, and this is often true in our schools as well. Students must learn the universal, proper English language, but they (and us) should be open to the many languages around them. It takes a great deal of time and work to learn a new language or about different cultures, but it is well worth the challenge. Once we have learned new information, we must incorporate this new knowledge with what we already know, and use it to make our classrooms, schools, and communities a more accepting environment.
Lisa Beach
Comments (5)
If language is indeed part of our identity, it makes me wonder how ESL students identify themselves, by both their home language and their school language? I'm surprised to hear that teachers tell Hispanic students to "speak English, we speak English here." This made me think about my school and I feel that we have a very tolerant and accepting environment. Our Hispanic and Hmong students speak to one another in their native language at lunch, recess, during partner or group activities. They can "code switch" back to English in a flash. And they do love to share their language. I know a few more Spanish words, but I can only say "hello" in Hmong so far. I like to say hello to my Hmong students in Hmong. It always makes them smile. I think they like to hear their native language spoken, but in reality I probably just sound really funny to them. When I share a book with English and Spanish text, like your students, my Hispanic students love to correct my pronunciations.
Posted by Carol Holt | June 6, 2011 7:32 PM
Posted on June 6, 2011 19:32
I found several points in your post to be valid truths of the harsh reality that we live in. You pointed out that people are stereo-typed as uneducated simply because they do not speak correctly. It is indeed our job as educators to prepare them for the demand of proper English. Our students will need these skills throughout their lives. I also feel as if students are losing who they are and pieces of their background because of this push. My favorite piece of your post was how you pointed out the importance encouraging students to be proud of their backgrounds. I hope that all educators are as aware of this need as you are. Our students must have their teacher’s support or even “permission” to know that our differences are positive attributes. When we encourage and invite students to be proud of their heritage, they feel safer to do so.
Posted by Stacy Durham | June 6, 2011 9:10 PM
Posted on June 6, 2011 21:10
I think encouraging students to be who they are and allowing them opportunities to share the culture of their language within the classroom while teaching them the standard language will give them the ability to properly code-switch. When we accept and embrace students for who they are, we are not only creating a "safe" environment but modeling the importance of respecting others for who they are regardless of race or dialect/language. It's establishing the expectations of respect and open-mindedness within our classrooms. I love your example of incorporating language among your students. It probably meant more to your students to have the opportunity to "teach" their teacher than you'll ever know, and it's such a simple and great way to include their interests within the classroom learning environment. How can we as teachers discourage our students from valuing their home language and say they can't share it with others when, as a nation, there exists no national language? Isn't it a bit double-standard to say they must speak standard English when English, or any other language for that matter, is not the official language?
Posted by Melissa Riley | June 6, 2011 9:54 PM
Posted on June 6, 2011 21:54
Lisa,
I think the idea of applying the concepts of these chapters to ESL students is a very important and interesting one. One the one hand, you want to respect students home languages and cultures to ensure that they feel safe and welcomed in the classroom so that they are open to learning from you. On the other hand, while subbing in various schools, I have also heard teachers tell spanish speaking students “We speak English in school, unless we are in Spanish class.” I stopped to consider this after reading the chapters. It seems unfair that we limit the amount of time children are allowed to speak their home languages in school, especially when they are at lunch or out at recess with others who they relate to who speak the same language. However, I do remember one teacher putting it in a way that made a little more sense, and made it seem a little less like they were implying that English was in some way superior to Spanish. Instead of simply saying “We speak English in school,” she explained that “we should always try to speak the language that the majority of the people in the room speak, because when we purposely speak in a language that others cannot understand, we might appear rude because we are not allowing everyone to understand what we are saying.” She was trying to get across the point that when the children were with group of English speaking students and only speaking Spanish, those other students may feel excluded, so they should try their best to include everyone in their conversations, and I just thought it was an interesting way of phrasing it.
Posted by Kim Strzelecki | June 7, 2011 2:28 PM
Posted on June 7, 2011 14:28
What a brilliant post, Lisa! I appreciate the way that you take such a strong stance against what appears to be "everyday" practices in school (around language correction) to be rejection. Language and identity are so intertwined that to reject one's language is also to reject a part of a person's humanity and identity. I am glad that you raised this issue in your post!
Posted by Dr. Jackson | June 9, 2011 9:46 AM
Posted on June 9, 2011 09:46