Language in the Classroom

Select a quote and discuss how it was personally meaningful to you:

“Children have the right to their own language, their own culture. It is not they, the children who must change, but the schools.”

I found this statement to be particularly poignant in light of the fact that the population of today’s public schools is increasingly becoming more diverse and that the language, curriculum and even teaching staff of these schools fail to reflect this. Reading this book brought up a lot of questions and issues for me, particularly the fact that, as a white female teacher, I will contribute to reinforcing the dominant paradigm. In fact, I now wonder how I will balance giving children the tools to access the linguistic culture of power without making them feel as if their own spoken languages or expressions are inferior. As a supporter of bilingual education, I also feel a lot of frustration in thinking about the push for English immersion and total ‘Americanization’ of immigrant children.

What do you feel the author wants us to think about, consider?

In terms of language acquisition, I feel the author wants us to think about the fact that, yes, standardized testing and language curriculum is culturally biased and fails to recognize the true cultural background of public schools, but it is still our duty to teach it to Children of Color. Unless an overall revolutionary shift of power occurs, it is necessary and beneficial for Children of Color to have access to the dominant language to obtain success in schools and secure employment. This is the sad reality, that White, middle-class children tend to do better in schools and therefore achieve more success in securing better-paid positions because the language of the schools and the working world at large reflects the language they are using at home. While many White, liberal teachers have good intentions by refusing to indoctrinate Children of Color with the “culture of power,” they are doing more harm than good because they fail to give these children access to the tools they need for success.

However, if a teacher does work to offer children such access, it is important to balance this with explorations of language that reflect the voices of the classroom. I really enjoyed reading about the comparative ways in which teachers can teach both linguistic forms. For example, Delpit talks about an Athabaskan teacher who contrasted “wordy” formal English with the metaphoric Athabaskan style by having her students reduce passages from books to “sayings” that could be written on t-shirts. Another African-American teacher discusses the language used in a novel that is written in “Black English” with her student. Through directed questioning, she points out the ease with which the book could be read and explores the reasons why Black people are required to learn “standard” English. These are highly intelligent and rich ways to explore language and culture without running the risk of tokenizing a certain group of people.

Would anything from what you’ve currently read influence your teaching?

This book has opened my eyes tremendously to the impact we have on our students, and I have to admit that while I would like to approach this style of teaching in my classroom, I have a lot of fear about how I can do it appropriately. It would be great to observe how teachers from various backgrounds interact with their students, and vice versa. I hope to arrange classroom observations in a variety of schools throughout the year so I can accomplish this goal and learn techniques to apply to my future classroom. In addition to this, I will strive to avoid any sort of stereotypical or tokenized explorations of culture in my classroom. It is my goal to create a classroom that truly celebrates diversity and where all children feel comfortable and valued.