Paper due by the end of the week

Shakayla Fields

October 22, 2016

English 326

Dr. B

Introduction

I pledge allegiance to the flag, de los estados Unidos de America, die enine Nation unter Gott ist indivisible, ave liberty and justice for all. America is a melting pot of people, culture, political views, religions and, languages. America was founded on the idea that immigrants with a vision of their own personal manifest destiny can be accomplished—regardless of circumstance. But. How can this be accomplished if “lo siento no hablo ingles, or Profesor no se porque no ingles es mi primo language.

            According to Ph.D. candidate Nicholas Subtirelu in Applied Linguistics and ESL student at Georgia State University examines the issues that come with language, English, privilege. The achievement gap between ESL students and native English learners are substantial data that insists that it may take ESL students several years to catch up to white native English speakers nation wide.

The NAEP achievement gap indicates the terms of proficiency in basic achievement levels, this identifies partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work.

The NAEP (Nation’s Report Card) achievement reinforces this idea with an analysis conducted between fourth and eighth graders. A 2005 assessment from the NAEP displayed 46% of ELL (English Language Learners) students across America scored below the basic in math in fourth grade. Seventy-three percent of ELL 4^thgraders scored below the basic level in reading. Data also reveals that eleven percent of white fourth graders nation wide were below the basic level in math and 25 percent in reading.

Blog #5 References

1. Delpit, Lisa D. Other People’s Children: Cultural Con ict in the Classroom. New York: New Press, 1995. Print. 

2. Young, V. A., & Martinez, A. Y. (n.d.). Code-Meshing as World English: Pedagogy, Policy, Performance. Retrieved October 17, 2016, from https://secure.ncte.org/store/code-meshing-as-world-english

3.Thomas, L., & Wareing, S. (1999). Language, society and power: An introduction. London: Routledge.

Here are the sources I plan to use for my research paper. 

From Africa to the New World, Written By Gena Smithman

For this blog I thought it was interesting to learn how African-American English, Black English, Black Idioms were formed and differed from the different African dialects. I used to think Black English was not an actual dialect, but more towards broken English slaves used to talk to slave masters, since they weren’t native to European countries. According to the article Black dialects are Africanized form of English that mirror Black African’s linguistic cultural African heritage and the conditions of many platforms of social, political and human injustice: Basically being black in America from the beginning “is hawrd”. (P3)” From Africa to the New World”.  The author describes Black language as being Euro-American speecj with Black American meaning nunance, tone, and gesture, the idioms used by Black Americans is 80-90 percent of the time. The author also shows the beauty on Black English because of the rhythmic patterns it holds. Examples of this are…

GRAMMAR AND STRUCTURE RULE IN WEST AFRICAN LANGUAGES & BLACK ENGLISH

REPETITION OF NOUN SUBJECT WITH PRONOUN                             

My father, he work there.

BLACK ENGLISH

Question patterns without “do” same for of noun for singular and plural

What it come to?

One boy; five boy

No tense indicates in verb; emphasis on manner or character of action

I know it good when he ask me

Black American English illustrates the beauty and power of the idiom that lies in its brevity. Essentially being able to say the same thing in standard written English, which has take 10x as many words. Ima gon’ ona ead n’ say (I’massuming) the Black idioms used when referencing the same topic are shortened because they are said with meaning and straight to the point. The author describes Black English in this way as being a mix and adapted language, stemming from slaves who had to accommodate their condition. He also mentions it has been a discriminated combined language and style interwoven unavoidable language within African- American culture.

In this day and age integrating different languages and those dialects should be more common than not. Especially in a place like America because it is a big melting pot of cultures and people. Slowly but surely with some ELL programs in place, students are able to enjoy their home languages outside of their houses and regular friend groups. However, for this to become more wide spread, it starts with teacher being able to combat this hierarchal language problem by being accepting and open to the diversity of their students’ background: this is in the choice of literature they deiced to teach, which should reflect and accurately represent the diversity of dialects their students share. Problems that come with addressing this issue I believe come from the Anglo-Saxon systemic school structures that have not been reformed since the constitution was first drafted. Meaning students and teachers are unable to enjoy the fulfillment of their education or teaching because of the constraints they are being boxed in with. The research I conduct for our upcoming project will based around the theory that students and teachers become more knowledgeable when they work cohesively together as they are rather than the teacher asking the student to memorize text and conform to the English standard set by the school.

CANAGARAJAH's Theory....I Think

“The Place of World Englishes in Composition” by Suresh Canagarajah, gives a well constructive viewpoint(s) on what is “strictly” classified as American Standard English.  Canagarajah breaks down English in two forums: Metropolitan and World Englishes. Metropolitan English (ME) which hails from Anglo-Saxon heritage—communities who have adopted the language from England consists of United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Just from this small section it shows how bias this idea of “native” speakers of English are represented. The native language to these regions are not English, in hindsight English and other Anglo-Saxon contributions to English (stemming from Britain) a World Englishes (WE). World Englishes are ruled governed, with well-established norms and communicative functions regulated enough for them. Meaning in Nigeria they speak a dialect of English called Nigerian Pidgin English, in that country which a universal dialect there.

Here are examples of this dialect:

Nigerian Pidgin English (WE)

Waka= (walk)

Sentence= I de waka ye house (I walk to your house)

I de= (I am)

Bros= Friend, male friend, man, boy

To get a better understanding of Canagarajah’s argument I watched YouTube videos on

Australian English (ME)

America: Car top

Sentence: “Pop the top of the hood.”

Australia: Car top

Sentence: “Pop the top of the bonnet.”

American English: Pacifier

 Australian English: Dummy

American English: Sweater

Australian English: Jumper

From these two dialects it is clear that both use variations of English, to value one over the other is a bit absurd, because they are only understood within that community. Countries like Australia and Nigeria have foreign Eurocentric roots, which in hindsight would make Australian English and the like technically a “WE” language. According to David Graddol, English as a sole first language projection by 2050 would be 443 million and English as additional/ second language would be 668million.

The argument Canagarjah is making is that the globalization of American English, has and is doing more harm than good. America uses many technical medias; such as CNN, social media platforms, movies and popularized TV shows to become a super contributor to the way people around the world talk and what to think about (unfortunately this is only a growing problem). Other colonized countries such as Sir Lanka, India and Nigeria, Haiti, etc., are being looked over because they do not favor the appearance or customs as other European countries. With euro variations of Anglo- Saxon English other forms of English are being under looked in the classroom as well—this could leave students to feel inadequate and unable to perform at their best.

As a future teacher, by the year 2050 the average classroom will have a 50% diversity rate, in that statistic it does not take in account how many students speak fluent Metropolitan English (which doesn’t make sense since Australian English and American English are completely abstract from each other. Australians have a better chance of understanding Americans because they have been programmed with the same thoughts and ideas Americans). Keeping an open mind and heart to Canagarajah’s theory will create class connectedness—which is crucial in a learning environment. Students should not feel patronized or embarrassed because they learned a different dialect of English, the affordances some people have over others is not always acquired at the same rate or at all.


Video links:

Nigerian Pidgin English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt8ROvqJ8pY

Australian English 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRrp83jCuQ