GRDG626: Language, Literacy, and Diversity in American Education

1
GRDG626 Language, Literacy, and Diversity in
American Education

• Using Linguistic Analysis
• Dr. Gloria E. Jacobs

2
Agenda

• Sharing
• Minilecture and Linguistic Workshop
• Break
• Small Group Discussion
• Introduction to Student Analysis
• Next Week

3
Sharing

• Elliot of RCSD addressing NCTE

4
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Accents, dialects, languages all linguistic
  variation
• Levels of variation
• Regional Association (regional dialects)
• Pronunciation (accent)
• Vocabulary
• Social Groups (social dialects)
• Grammar

5
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• The greater the social distance, the greater the
  variation in language.
• Most apparent in how verbs are used
• Those with less social power expected to
  know/understand language of those of higher
  social power, but not vice versa.

6
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Use These Terms
• Language variation or linguistic variation
• Vernacular dialect
• Standard English(es)

• Rather Than These
• Dialect
• Nonstandard English
• Proper English

7
Language, Learning, and Thinking

• No evidence that linguistic variation interferes
  with cognitive development or reflects logical
  thinking (or lack thereof).

8
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Standard English(es) A composite of socially
  preferred dialects from various parts of the US
  and other English speaking countries (Adger,
  Wolfram, Christian, 2007, p. 15).
• Consistent with critical race theory that
  recognizes the value of the African American
  experience and how the white experience has been
  historically privileged.
• Two views Deficit versus Difference
• Consistent with McDermott Varenne (1997)
  Culture as Disability perspective.

9
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Whats a teacher to do?
• Develop knowledge and respect for integrity of
  linguistic varieties (Adger, 2007, p. 26).
• Make dialect study part of your professional
  development
• Teach students to appreciate their linguistic
  heritage by teaching them how to do dialect study
• Explicitly teach code switching and
  audience/purpose for different Englishes

10
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Conducting dialect study
• Involve your students
• Listen closely and nonjudgmentally to your speech
  and that of your students
• Learn the linguistic patterns of the community in
  which you teach
• Listen for grammatical patterns
• Listen for pronunciation patterns
• Vowel differences tend to mark region
• Consonant differences tend to mark social class

11
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Is someone who speaks in the vernacular
• uneducated
• Or
• not socialized into academic or standard
  Englishes
• Or
• choosing to use a linguistic variant as an
  identity and group membership marker

12
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Implications for Literacy Instruction
• miscue analysis/reading instruction
• The shortcomings of Dibels and similar out of
  context word lists
• spelling development
• grammar instruction
• writing assessment
• mis-identification of students for Special
  Education services
• We should of gone to are grandmother house.

13
Minilecture - IPA (Phonics Chapter)

• Sound/letter correspondence
• Vowels and consonants
• Terms
• Phoneme smallest unit of sound that carries
  meaning.
• Dipthongs Two sounds within one phoneme (bike)
• Digraphs Two letters to represent one phoneme
  (that)
• Blends Two letters/two phonemes that are
  smoothed together (bread/bleed)

14
IPA sounds/symbols
15
Linguistic Workshop (Part 1)

• With a partner, go to a quiet place in the
  building and analyze your speech
• Read a portion of a passage from a text. Have
  your partner listen to how you really pronounce
  different words. Listen for vowels, dropped
  consonants, elisions, etc.
• Pay attention to how you speak in casual
  conversation. How does your pronunciation change?
  How do your grammatical patterns change? What
  vocabulary choices do you make that mark you as a
  particular type of person (Discourse community)?
• How does this differ from how you speak in a
  professional environment?

16
Break 615 630
17
Linguistic Workshop (Part 2)

• With a partner, wander around campus and listen
  to the different speech patterns.
• Take notes on what you hear and your reactions to
  the language variations you hear.

18
Small Group Discussion

• Random groups.
• Discuss what you learned during your linguistic
  self-reflection and sleuthing.

19
Student Analysis

• See syllabus
• Data to be collected
• Analysis
• Implications

20
Next Week

• Watch performances from Brave New Voices
• Compton-Lilly Chapter 10
• Redd, T.M. Webb, K.S. (2005). A Teachers
  Introduction to African American English. Urbana,
  IL NCTE. Chapters 3 4
• Tatum, A. (2009). Reading for Their Life
  (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African
  American Males. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann. 1-21.

21
Examples of Spoken Word

• Hebrew Mamita
• Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make"