In
Flynn's article The Language of Power: Beyond the Grammar
Workbook, she explains
the relationship between
appearance and language,
especially race as it relates
to language.
She explains that in the
classroom she watched which
was located in a middle-class white area, the
students of color required a lot more help because their cultures
didn't value the same things as their
school. She
specifically touches on the
subject of progressive pedagogy-writers
and readers workshops-which
she seems to find a problem
with as it relates to
students of color. I found
the activity where the students wrote rules for their selected
language, switched with a partner, and had to write a speech based on
their partners rule sets for language fascinating. This is an
incredibly smart way to get students to not only learn to follow
grammar rules of other languages, but it's a great way for them to
see how hard it is for non-native English speakers to follow the
standard English rules! (I just may use this in my classroom).
For
my portfolio, I will be showing varieties of the English language:
standard English, home-language English, a mesh between two different
languages, etc (use of a colon to further explain the varieties
of language in a list). In my case, I think it would be interesting
to incorporate a lot of my home language because it is a language in
itself- German/English. With my future students, it would be
interesting to tell my own experience with language and how my
“broken English” home has encouraged me to study English and, in
a way, be very conscious of the way I talk, making sure it's always
correct. My main reason for wanting to teach language and grammar is
because I want to teach that everyone's language is valued and
shouldn't be thrown away and replaced with standard English. I really
want to teach that there is a time and place for certain language,
just as other social rules, and that one language doesn't need to
replace all other languages. One of my main arguments is that
non-native English speakers aren't praised enough for learning
another language (English) as native English speakers are praised for
knowing 50 words in another foreign language. What's interesting to
me is that English is one of the hardest languages to learn, yet,
native Spanish speakers are rarely praised for being able to speak it
fluently, but I can speak 10 words in Spanish and now I'm the coolest
person in class. The system of language is a little jaded to me and I
want to try to shift that in my classroom.
I
think my favorite activity to do to incorporate everyone's chosen
language is to do a free write at the beginning of each class. The
students will each have a journal-that I will keep and
pass out-and they will be able to write however
they want, the only time they can write without “proper” grammar
(use
of parenthetical dashes to add
in an un-needed but descriptive part of the sentence). This is
not only a great way to incorporate their language, but it's also a
great way to get to know your own students. I will allow students to
share sentences out of their journal if they choose to, and as a
class we can discuss why it's okay to use certain words or grammar in
that situation, but maybe not in another situation. I would hope that
some students would have code-switching languages like I do, so we
could have a wide variety to discuss.
