Transcript Language and Academic Life

Teaching About Diversity:
The Linguistic Dimension
Walt Wolfram
April 12, 2013
Walt Wolfram
March 12, 2009
March 29, 2011
Walt Wolfram
1
The Rationale for Linguistic Engagement
“Of what use is linguistics? …In the lives of
individuals and of society, Language is a
factor of greater importance than any other.
For the study of language to remain solely
the business of a handful of specialists would
be a quite unacceptable state of affairs. In
practice, the study of
language is in some degree
or other the concern of
everyone.”
2
Language and Academic Life
 Academics are gatekeepers, guardians, and
authorities in the use of language
 The academy provides models for students
in the normative uses of academic English
 Attitudes and behavior towards language
diversity—by instructors and students—are
not trivial or incidental; they affect students’
attitudes about themselves, the university,
and participation and performance in
university life
3
Common Knowledge
and Popular Culture
“That’s the good thing about dialects;
anybody can do it as a hobby.”
– Taxi cab driver, Albuquerque
– January 5, 2006
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you
in trouble. It’s what you know for sure
that just ain’t so.”
– Mark Twain
Anonymous Student Comments
“I notice myself like this year especially I don’t really
speak up too much in class and stuff like that unless I
feel really comfortable and I’m in there with a lot of my
peers that are my friends. But beyond that like in other
classes I don’t say too much, ‘cause I can hear, you
know, people snickering or stuff like that when I talk.”
5
Anonymous Student Comments
“Sometimes I think that people might think that I’m
not educated because of it, just because I have this
accent and you hear a country accent and you think
hillbilly, and then hillbilly, no education. So I think it’s
just the social norm to think that way.”
In our halls of reflection
"Asians have weird accents; they
use sounds that don't even exist.”
-Eavesdropped conversation, Tompkins Hall,
April 2, 2013
6
From a Colleague in the Academy
“Walt, I read the article in the newspaper and that's NOT
how older people from Raleigh talk, not if they're educated.”
-April 8, 2013
Cf. Dodsworth, Robin and Mary Kohn. 2012. Urban rejection of the vernacular:
The SVS [Southern Vowel Shift] undone. Language Variation and Change 24:
1-25.
7
The Everyday Controversy of
Language Use
Barry Saunders, News & Observer, August 13, 2012
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/08/12/2265927/whatsup-with-pols-talkin-down.html)
“What is it that makes some politicians, despite being well-educated, silkstockinged and pedigreed, try to speak like a field hand – or at least as though
they’d never set foot inside an English class?
I call it political linguistic slumming – PLS – and the most recent egregious
example is being committed by gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory in his
new TV ad.
McCrory ends the ad by saying, in his most folksy, aw-shucks manner, “I’m Pat
McCrory, and I’m ruuunnin’ for governor.”…They seek to convey, as near as I
can tell, that “Hey, y’all. I’m just like you.”
Reactions to Saunders
“There is one standard American English, and it is the
required tool of communication for all people in this
society. Pleading for a variety of "Englishes" is failing to
understand the need for one common language for a
society, used according to common standards,
developed at a level that suits educating people in
various subjects (and also, discussing social issues). It's
a basic need of communication.”
Reactions to Saunders’ article
'Proper' grammar is a form of oppression, Barry. In our country,
grammar enforcement is deeply racist since it means ignoring the
creativity and vitality of minority Englishes, and marking down
'non-standard' expressions…Notice how you associate the
'proper' with intelligence. If we want minority children to achieve,
we have to recognize the vitality of their lingo. Know what I'm
sayin'?
The Study of Dialect Diversity in
University Life
Stephany Brett Dunstan (2013), The Influence of Speaking a
Dialect of English on the College Experience. PhD dissertation,
NC State
 Rural Appalachian students at “Southern State
University” (26 cases studies)
 Recorded conversations, extracted dialectally
diagnostic features
 Acoustically measured diagnostic vowels
 Interviews about college experience related to their
dialect; follow-up interviews to verify classifications
11
The Objective Manifestation of Diversity
The acoustic measurement
of the bide and bite vowel
Structure
Incidence
%
Irregular
He had took a class
6/9
67%
was regularization
We wasn’t there
5/8
63%
don’t level
He don’t give back
tests
3/7
43%
ain’t
She ain’t here
2/6
33%
18/22
82%
Negative concord
They hardly do nothin’
12
Language Diversity: Academic and
Social Experience
 Course participation is affected by the perception of vernacular
dialect (speaking in class, comfort-level speaking)
 Vernacular dialect adds barriers in social-academic settings
(need to “prove” intelligence, overcome stereotypes)
 College experience heightens awareness of language
stigmatization of home dialect; status as the linguistic other
 Experiences in different departments and colleges vary, but
not in alignment with associated sociopolitical ideologies
 Sense of belonging can be influenced by the perception about
dialect; students feel a need to accommodate in order to
belong
(From Dunstan 2013)
The Challenge of Language
Diversity
Entrenched language ideology
The most persistent sociolinguistic challenge in all venues
of education and public life continues to be the widespread
application of the principle of linguistic subordination
Lippi-Green, 2012: 73
“Discrimination based on language
variation is so commonly accepted, so
widely perceived as appropriate, that it
must be seen as the last back door to
discrimination. And the door stands
wide open.”
14
Linguistic Profiling and Language Variation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zup2qlFuCDc
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The social consequences:
The case of “linguistic profiling”
 Definition: Using vocal cues to identifying the probable
ethnicity or social affiliation of a person (often over the
telephone) and then “discriminating” against that person
because of a perceived ethnic or social affiliation
 Can happen in many contexts, including employment,
housing, access to services, criminal convictions
 Estimated to be between 2 to 4 million cases annually of
linguistic profiling related to housing (between 6,000 to 10,000
cases per day)
 Fair Housing Act: Sec. 804. [42 U.S.C. 3604 a-f] “It shall be
unlawful… (b) To discriminate against any person in the
terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling,
or in the provision of services or facilities in connection
therewith, because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status,
or national origin.”
Language Subordination Model
 Language is mystified (guidance in complexity)
 Authority is appropriated (expert opinion)
 Misinformation is generated (logic, aesthetics, history)
 Targeted language varieties are trivialized (funny, quaint)
 Conformers are positive examples, minorities exceptionalized
(hopeful conformity)
 Non-conformers are marginalized (deficient language)
 Explicit promises are made (opportunities await)
 Threats are made (opportunities denied)
 Most effectively implemented by consensus (assumed social
order)
The Paradigm Challenge
Lack of established tradition
There is no established tradition for public education
about language diversity in American society; it does
not fit within current paradigms of formal or informal
education
18
The Public Challenge
Media presentations dominate the
representation of American culture
The public impact of
education about
linguistic diversity is
severely limited if we do
not effectively use a
range of media venues.
19
Commonsense Notions and
Dialect Reality
Dialects are homogenizing due to
the influence of the mass media,
mobility, and virtual accessibility
Dialects are dynamic; while some
dialects are receding, others are
intensifying. There is no unilateral
convergence or divergence of
dialects in the US
The Inland North and Northern Cities-At
Night
(from
2008)
U.S.
atLabov
Night
Milwaukee
Grand
Rapids
Chicago
Syracuse
Rochester
Flint
Buffalo
Detroit
Cleveland
Kenoshat
Joliet
Toledo
Omaha
St. Louis
Kansas City
Columbus
CIncinnati
Indianapolis
Project on Cross-Dialectal
Comprehension: Gating Experiment
Word
Phrase
Sentence
1. _________ ________________ ___________________________
2. _________ ________________ ___________________________
3. _________ ________________ ___________________________
4. _________ ________________ ___________________________
5. _________ ________________ ___________________________
6. _________ ________________ ___________________________
(From Labov 2008)
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The Northern Cities Vowel Shift
desk
mat
busses
head
boss
block
socks
(From Labov, 2008)
Listen to the Southern Vowel Shift
hit
kids
beatin’
set
bed
Danny
grade
Guy
wipin’
24
Another Case of Divergence: The Speech of
Urban African American Youth
 Where did it come from—the historical origin and
development?
 Trajectories of change in the past and present?
 How is it linked to demographics, social organization, and
sociocultural identity?
 Why is it important?
Research Communities in North Carolina
26
Hyde
County,
NC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zAiGcVNqHY
The Significance of Hyde County:
Place, Time, and Identity
 One of the oldest counties to be settled in North Carolina (c.
1700), a rural region made up of small communities widely
separated by desolate swampy areas, overland transportation
restricted until 1940s
 Migration of European Americans and African Americans to Hyde
from Virginia and Maryland, relative stability with limited inmigration since then
 Unique regional (Outer Banks) dialect of English
 Relative geographic, economic, and social detachment from
other inland regions 85% wetlands, farming, fishing, logging);
longstanding sparse population density levels (1790 census
4,120; 2010 census 5,810; 31.6% African American)
Generational Speech Samples: Hyde County
European American Outer Banks male (b.1944)
Well, like say we started on that end and started running ‘em
back this way, and then they used to come up along--see there
weren’t all this--this was swamp here, we used to hunt. On
every one of these houses. All these houses from where we
turned at the fire station up this way, been built here since the
sixties. There was only one house was up here in the sixties.
All this subdivision, Jackson Dunes, Oyster Creek. And then
the ponies would come around, you know, you’d pen ‘em up
and they’d come right on the shore out here. You know we had
beaches, you know, before everybody started building, you’d
have little beach all the way around on the sound side, just
like you do on the ocean. But now you don’t. Everybody’s
breakwatered and filled in, built. And then in June, we had a
cattle penning.
Generational Speech Samples: Hyde County
Older African American, Hyde County (b. 1910)
We was young fellers and got to fighting, I hit him a lick or
two and he run to the shelter to get a axe, and I knowed, I
knowed what was in there when he—when he went there and
a notion struck me, you better get behind the shelter. And he,
when he come out he was looking for me where he left me out
there, he had that axe just right, but I was behind him. I was
stunting that time, and I run up behind ‘im, you see, I was a
better man ‘n he was. I run up behind him and grabbed him
and throwed him on the ground and struck him with that fis’
a time or two and took that axe. And I threw it way out there
and I beat him good. When I turned him a-loose, he didn’t go
look for that axe, he went to the house. Aah, but if I’da
stayed out there where he left me, he might woulda chopped
me in the head or something, can’t never tell. So, that made
his daddy mad cause I beat him. He was taking up for the boy
but he weren’t taking up for me.
Generational Speech Samples: Hyde County
Great Granddaughter, African American (b. 1975)
It’s a ghost story that they tell about, like, over Slocum about, when
you see these two stars in the sky fighting, there’re these two mens
that killed theirself, you know, about fighting, and they was, what,
Chet and Tom. Now that’s a light be following you ‘cause there’s so
ma-that, so many peoples got killed that a light be following you.
And then they have, they have told this story about, like, if this
woman be on the road thumbing and you stop and you give her a
ride and then you think she honestly in the car with you and then
when you turn over she’s not in the car with you. Somebody have
honestly seen—that honestly happened to somebody, somebody
honestly seen that light, but as far as me, I’ve never seen it cause I
don’t be trying to worry about seeing nothing like that. But we
have been, cause Slocum would be, like seen a—two lights in the sky,
them two lights in the sky, but, you know, never known what they
was until somebody told us that, it was two, uh what? A slave
owner and slave was fighting and they ki—they, you know,
somebody said they killed each other right over there.
Generational Speech Samples: Hyde County
Hyde County European American male (b. 1979)
He was sittin’ in the middle, we had him in between ‘cause he was
talkin’ junk to these, about 15 big guys and stuff. And they didn’t
like it so, and uh, when we were ridin’ he was just sittin’ ‘ere hittin’
stuff, and he was bleedin’ and everything, and, uh (so that’s how
you ended up jumpin’ a curb), well, there’s—it’s like a U thing, the
waterfront in Washington where everybody goes to hang out. It’s a
U and we were coming out around this way, and he was talkin’
junk. And they were over here in this parking lot, and when we
come back around here the traffic was stopped. If we’da stopped,
we’da been right there beside of ‘em. And they started comin’
over toward the truck—all of ‘em, so—I weren’t about to get my
tail whupped just for him talkin’ junk, so. If I’da had rear view
mirrors I’da never jumped it ‘cause the cop was right behind me
when I did it. I had no idea he was behind me, because if he had of,
I’da never jumped the curve. But uh, I just jumped over the
curve dere and went out the other driveway and I said, “We’re
going home.” And by that time Little Jimmy had done passed
out.
Trajectory of Change for Hyde County White
and Blacks in Apparent Time
100
Core AAVE
50
Outer Banks
0
Pre-WWI
WWI-PreIntegration
Integration
33
PostIntegration
Ethnolinguistic Divergence in Demographic and
Historical Perspective
Earlier English by African Americans was
probably more correlated with personal social
and regional history than with the construction
of community-based socioethnic identities. The
association of African American speech with
ethnic identity is a development of the second
half of the twentieth century. In high-density
black urban areas, African American English has
b
been diverging.
34
Commonsense Notions and
Dialect Reality
Dialects are ill-formed
derivatives of Standard English
Dialects are highly patterned,
intricate and systematic varieties
of a language
What’s Grammaticality?
36
DIALECT PATTERNING
The Regional
Dimension
The Use of A- Prefixing
Sentence pairs for
A- prefixing
1 a __ Building is hard work
b __ She was building a house
2 a __ He likes hunting
b __ He went hunting
3 a __ The child was charming the adults
b __ The child was very charming
List B:
A Further Detail for A-prefixing
1 a __ They make money by building houses
b __ They make money building houses
2 a __ People can’t make enough money fishing
b __ People can’t make enough money from
fishing
3 a __ People destroy the beauty of the island
through littering
b __ People destroy the beauty of the island
littering
List C: Yet a Further Detail
for A- prefixing
1 a __ She was discóvering a trail
b __ She was fóllowing a trail
2 a __ She was repéating the chant
b __ She was hóllering the chant
3 a __ They were fíguring the change
b __ They were forgétting the change
Dialect Patterning:
An Urban Ethnic Pattern
Patterning of BE in Urban
African American English
Number of People
Who Chose the
Following:
32 They usually be tired when they
1 a ___
come home
3 They be tired right now
b___
31 When we play basketball, she be on
2 a___
4
b___
my team
The girl in the picture be my sister
3 My ankle be broken from the fall
3 a___
32 Sometimes my ears be itching
b___
Applying the Rule
Now that you understand the rule of
can you predict its use in the following
sentences?
1 ____ The students always be talking in
class.
2 ____ The students don’t be talking right
now.
3 ____ Sometimes the teacher be early for
class
,
Commonsense Notions and
Dialect Reality
There is little reason to learn
about dialect diversity apart from
innate curiosity
There are significant scientific,
social, historical, educational,
and personal benefits from
studying language diversity
Integrating Language Diversity:
The Intellectual Rationale
 All language varieties are patterned and systematic;
this patterning can be uncovered through
observation, elicitation, and speaker intuitions
 Education about language diversity offers an
informated perspective that counters the socialized
miseducation about language diversity under the
principle of linguistic subordination
45
The Social Rationale
 Language diversity carries social meaning
 Language is symbolic behavior
 The agentive use of language
11-year-old girl, lifetime resident of Piedmont (Durham/Siler City),
parents from Mexico
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
13-year old brother, lifetime resident of Piedmont (Durham/Siler
City)
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Essentials for Academic Instruction
 An authentic understanding of the natural basis of
linguistic diversity and the social and educational
basis of language prejudice and discrimination—
empirical validity and reflective understanding
 The difference between linguistic well-formedness
(“grammaticality”) and the social valuation of
language—grammaticality vs. social acceptability
 Awareness of the ways in which language diversity
impacts both subject matter presentation and student
participation
47
Language Diversity:
More than a Content Area
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTt07IVDeww
What Students Deserve to Know?
 An authentic understanding of the basis of linguistic
diversity, language equality, and social inequality
related to language diversity—the empirically based
truth about linguistic diversity
 An understanding of the systematic patterning of
language regardless of social evaluation
 An awareness of the most salient socially stigmatized
structures associated with language differences
49
The Call for Action
 Provide training for instructors in language diversity that
(a) addresses “commonsense” but unjustifable
assumptions about diversity and (b) offers substantive
knowledge about the systematic nature of diversity
 Integrate units on language diversity into the regular
teaching of content, understand its application
 Provide resources (sample teaching units, DVDs for
classroom instruction) to instructors for teaching about
language diversity
 Provide accessible sociolinguistic consultation about
linguistic diversity to instructors and students
50
The Pedagogical Rationale for Integrating
Dialect Diversity
Language differences influence writing and speaking in
significant and systematic ways that are essential to
the development of normative skills associated with
university education
Miscue Types: mechanical, developmental, genre,
spoken language influence
e.g. People that takes composition courses…
The people who miss the course last semester…
The instructor asked could we turn in the paper…
51
The Challenge
NC State can make an academic, social, and educational
difference in students’ understanding of language diversity.
It HAS the resources to integrate language diversity in a
way that is inherently interesting, highly informative, and
socially and educationally meaningful. Few university
programs in the country possess such potential.
Act now!
52
On the Consequences of Grammatical
Choice—Barry Saunders’ Sad Rejection
“Many years ago while on a double-date with my college roommate
and two young ladies, I was in the backseat desperately pitching
woo to my unreceptive date when I deigned to use a word that had
more than the proscribed number of syllables – apparently two.
The two women laughed, and my otherwise articulate roommate
pulled to the side of the road, turned around and, with anger
disproportionate to any offense I might have committed, said: “Man,
don’t nobody want to hear that kinda talk outside the classroom. It’s
Saturday night.”
I calmly explained that because I was paying a lot of money to learn
those words, I was going to use them.
Whatever words I used that night obviously didn’t work: I never saw
the woman again.”
Word from the stall!
Men’s Restroom, Caldwell Hall
August 15, 2011