John W. White and Carolyne Ali-Khan in their article “The Role of Academic Discourse” indicate that in order for students to find success in college, educators need to prepare them with the ability to code-switch. They argue that literacy depends on the social background of the people; thus, social languages vary between different groups with different background. Furthermore, the lack of knowledge to code-switch is the main reason for students dropping out of school, and contrary to common belief it is not because the student is not capable; however the problem lies with communication. Therefore, because the home language that the students speak is heavily imbedded within their identity, students are only alienated from school when the institution …show more content…
Working hard amounts to nothing when students cannot understand the subject due to language barriers. Therefore, teachers need to be flexible in their teaching methods to help students understand Standard English. Educators can be flexible by accepting the use of social language by the students in order to help them transition to Standard English. As Hill indicates it is vital “to recognize that everyone speaks a deviation from Standard English” and thus teachers need to “acknowledge [students] voices in their writings” (121). By accepting the student’s use of social language students will better understand context and be encouraged to express their ideas and feelings without limitations. Students will also be able to learn the basic skills of code-switching because they are using their social language to start with. White and Ali-Khan indicate that accepting the students social language “[encourages] students to see the adoption of academic discourses as a component of code-switching rather than as a rejection of other forms of communication” (35). Students will hesitate to learn if they perceive …show more content…
Therefore, it is common for students to connect social languages with their identity. Educators only add more problems, when they have the false assumption that the reason for students not speaking Standard English is because those students lack the basic skill and ability to do so (Hill 120). Teachers, due to their wrong assumption, are unaware that they are attacking the identity of the students. When a person in authority tells students that their way of speaking is wrong they are undermining the students’ identity. As a result, an internal conflict arises within the students, as to whether to reject the social languages that the students associate their identities with or reject Standard English. The result as White and Ali-Khan write is that students will “[resist] the common dominant discursive styles that [surrounds] them. In turn, [students will become] further isolated from the university’s social milieu” (31). This resistance will go on as long as the institution belief doesn’t change regarding Standard English. And as a consequence students will become more isolated from school if the institution is attacking their values and identities, making the students feel degraded. Therefore, the Standard English that the students learn becomes irrelevant since they are not going to use Standard English within the communities that they relate
She also notes the difference between academia language also known as CALPS: cognitive academic language proficiency and meaningful language - BICS: basic interpersonal communication skills. She mentions how academic language requires more comprehension of the language than interpersonal language; which is more informal and contextual. She also illustrates the importance of treating students for who they are going to become, not the by the fact that they are struggling. A methodology that is represented throughout the book that illustrates the ways teachers can accommodate their language learning students is with scaffolding. Scaffolding is a variety of instructional techniques that are used to assist students to move towards a better understanding of the content and towards independence when it comes to their learning processes. The teacher provides a form of temporary support that will assist the students reach increased levels of understanding and skills acquisition that would not be achievable without aid. All in all, this book will be great for all K-12 teachers and professors; but, I did not review this book because I already did a book review for this book in a different course and it would not widen my prospects of learning more about special
Discourse Community Project A discourse community is a community that shares the same "discourses" or values or goals as their community. An example of this would be a sports team or organization. Players of these specific teams all work together to achieve a common goal; to win. These players have a coach that is a powerful leader and that individual makes them strive to be the best players they can be. Moreover, it is important for each player to have trust in each other and to form bonds.
His fifth claim is that different forms of speech do not equate to differing levels of achievement in school. As a sixth claim, he argues that ethnographic assumptions offered by Deutsch, Bereiter, Engelmann are wrong. His final claim, is that training a child to learn the logical manner of Standard English doesn’t guarantee that he’ll succeed. Nonstandard English isn’t the problem to learning; it’s the ignorance of the language and the belief that it’s inferior.
A discourse community is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field. According to the criteria conveyed in “The Concept of Discourse Community” by John Swales, Christianity can be considered as a discourse community because of its common goals, medium of communication, participatory mechanisms, specific genres, and its threshold level of members.
Higher education costs can be astronomical and limiting to the desire of many people to advance in their fields of study and research areas. However, there exists various avenues through which learners can get assistance to accomplish their study goals. These include application for scholarships, grant and proposal writing and even acquiring student loans to finance their studies. There are various factors that one should consider before applying for the above mentioned alternatives and these include the attached costs, the deadlines for applications and most importantly, the eligibility for application. Once these
By making language more accessible in the classroom, the pathway to learning can be opened. Keywords: language, Ebonics, identity, Standard English, curriculum Introduction Lisa Delpit and
“Hi, Nick! This is Shepard with the University of Oklahoma and I was just giving you a call—I wanted to first congratulate you. We’re going to be sending you a contract offer of admissions.” (Shepard). It was this voicemail that started my journey here at the University of Oklahoma. When I arrived at the University of Oklahoma, I was unsure what to expect in an academic setting. However, after experiencing several discussion sections of varying classes, I developed a better understanding of how language played a role in academics. Although I knew that my social language would be different in an academic setting as compared to a social setting, it was not until I took English composition that I was fully able to understand the significance of that language plays in education. Because of my experiences at the University of Oklahoma, I now comprehend that, in an academic setting, patience, professionalism, and interaction are all necessary forms of language that must be used in order to fully grasp elements of education that are not written inside of textbooks.
In a multilingual or bilingual environment, use of code switching is a common practice. This research aims at finding the attitude of students towards code switching on daily conversation. Nipel (2006) investigates social culture linguistics where students frequently use code switching a lot as not to break a conversation that they are participating in. Therefore, code switching is always used by students who are from the same area and speak the same language. The definition of code switching has been suggested by many researchers in the past. For example, Wardhaugh (2006) in his book defined code switching as switching from one code to another in order to create a new code. In other words, it is defined as a form of identity marker for a group of speakers who use more than one language. Moreover, Myers-Scotton (2006) defined code switching as the use of two different language types in a single or same conversation. Therefore, code-switching is the collocation within the same conversation between two people who use different grammatical systems while participating in the conversation. Code-Switching occurs when two languages are used in one interaction session between two bilingual speakers (Young, 2014).
Qualitative approach to Critical Discourse Analysis requires the acknowledgement of biases, assumptions and personality that may interfere with the research. Critical Discourse Analysis does not require the researcher to interpret the participant’s experience. Critical Discourse Analysis required the researcher to interpret data by having links or share pattern between the items under research. Reflexivity is design to prevent the research from manipulating the data to agree with is his or her preconceived notions. The four type of Reflexivity are Personal, interpersonal, methodological and contextual (Creswell, & Creswell’ 2007) Personal reflexivity is the acknowledgment of the researcher feelings about the subject. Interpersonal reflexivity is the relationship the researcher shared with the research. Methodological reflexivity is the ability to accept the outcome
The introduction to The Expanding Discourse and Reclaiming Female Agency: Feminist Art History After Postmodernism as well as the interview A Dialogue with Linda Nochlin, the Maverick She all provide a discourse on feminist art history through several decades that is enlightening and somewhat startling. These essays explore some of the intricacies and changes within the history of this relatively new methodology of art history and, though these essays do not go into great detail, they do offer a helpful survey that is brief, yet informative, for this particular discipline of art history.
The goal of discourse analysis is to build understanding about the ways people communicate by observing natural data in the smallest chunks, called utterances; and analyzing how these utterances connect to non-verbal cues, including, but not limited to gestures, facial expressions, and body shifting. According to Winston (year), the five fundamental concepts behind discourse analysis are that it is interactive, it involves a series of choices, that meaning emerges over time, and that this meaning is affected by non-verbal cues that accompany the language. Using these foundational ideas, researchers dig deep in order to provide a better understanding of each idea’s overall impact on the communication process.
John White describes how students’ home language can function as a bridge into learning Standard American English if they are not alienated by schools’ practices. Children who learn SAE will be conversant in the language of power, so academic and professional opportunities will likely present themselves, yet these kids will also maintain strong emotional ties to their home community because they will not have lost their community dialect. Similarly, Anne Curzan describes how beginning teachers need to be prepared to encounter resistance when they attempt to teach code-switching in the classroom. If they are not ready to encounter the varieties of resistance they will face, they will struggle to teach SAE via code-switching and will probably
Code-switching is considered a phenomenon in communication, where the speakers, typically bilinguals, alternate codes such as languages, dialects, style or accent within a conversation to accommodate interaction needs (Gladkova, 2017; Shay, 2015). Even though code-switch users are considered to be language incompetent, and to impure languages, the process serves many positive purposes in multiple contexts. Switching between codes is a behaviour to utilise lexical resources of both languages or to emphasise the meaning of the delivered messages, to define personal or groups’ identity, and to aid teachers in conducting language lessons.
As we have all witnessed first-hand in America and other countries, there are many variations of the languages we speak. Different dialects, pronunciation, forms, and accents all make up the subtle differences of languages spoken around the world. Because America is a “melting pot” for so many unique cultures, it’s easy to walk down the street and pick up on a version of English not native to you. As you travel around the country and the world, you detect that the language changes are unquestionably apparent and are effortlessly identifiable because of their unfamiliarity to you. I feel that the different dialects, accents, and forms of the English language, all help add to the cultural diversity here in America and make it a more well-rounded place. But, language can be a harmful thing if abused. Linguistic prejudice is prevalent in America if you are a non-native English speaker. Many examples found in our readings relate to real world scenarios in our culture. In this essay, I will discuss the benefits of different versions of a language, explain an example of linguistic prejudice I have seen first-hand, as well as describe how the ability to code switch is a very useful tool in rhetoric.
In this world, there are a lot of languages used to communicate. Nation and cultural diversity are a source of variation in the languages. The diversity of the language used by a particular group is a factor of the occurrence of bilingualism. According to Grosjean (1984, p. 1) bilingualism is the use of two or more languages. The proficiency of bilingualism may vary depending on the exposure to the other users of language and opportunities to use the language. It is one of the factors of replacement of the language. This phenomenon known as code switching, it can occur as a whole, the incorporating elements of other languages in the language being used, or the turn of a variation of a language. Based on Poplack (1980) theory code switching is the alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or constituent. Garrett (2010, p. 11) said that code switching is the most powerful feature of informal communication. Code switching happens when speakers speak in one language into another language as example when they