We've talked a lot about code switching, and this is something I've seen students do firsthand. When I was at my branch campus, Greater Allegheny, I tutored at a nearby school district, McKeesport. McKeesport is a very diverse area about 12 miles outside of the city. Most kids in this area speak with the dialect that is rooted in Pittsburgh. I worked with students who wouldn't speak SE when they talked to me or their friends. However, when I would read over their assignments, they were able to eloquently structure their ideas and get their points across using SE. I think that, as a nation, we simply need to accept dialects and, instead of cramming SE down our students' throats, we should show them how to code switch and teach them that there's a time for dialects and a time for a more sophisticated form of speaking.
Has anyone else had a similar experience with dialects? How do you think we should treat them in schools? Should we embrace them or erase them?
3 comments:
I'm not from Pittsburgh, but having attended Penn State for 3 years now, I have encountered numerous individuals who speak "Pittsburghese," and speak it proudly. I don't really view dialects as a problem orally which has made me ponder a possible take on the issue--separating language as oral and written. If my students choose to speak their native dialects during class discussions I don't think that that would cause a problem. I came from an extremely diverse high school, I realized after coming here, and my classmates always spoke in class with their individual dialects. This is not to say that I solely expect my students to WRITE correctly in SE, I also expect them to speak SE correctly too but one is never really orally graded in high school English.
Therefore, I do believe that writing should be written in SE. I believe that students are going to school and one of the expectations placed upon them is to learn SE by the time they graduate. This discussion is very controversial, as has been evidenced by our back and forth discussions in class, but regardless of one's view as to reinforcing or eliminating other dialects, SE will only HELP graduates in their future endeavors. I do not think it necessary to eliminate their native dialect, believing it acts as an identifier, part of who the student is, and therefore should never be threatened. However, I think that just as I wouldn't swear in an interview, or even use "Pittsburghese" for that matter, there is a certain professional image expected, and SE is a part of that. Therefore, it is a teacher's responsibility to teach his or her students to become literate in it.
I think that these dialects need to be embraced. Even if we try to cram down SE down everyone's throats it would cause people who speak that way to be turned off by education. Lets think about if dialects were completely wiped out for a moment. At an educational level I am not sure that much would change from it, except as stated earlier that more people might be wary of learning in general which is the opposite that we want. We want people to be MORE educated not less. I would like to look at things from a more cultural aspect though. I work at an Irish pub, and my new GM is from Ireland. Part of the experience in walking into the pub is that our manager likes to walk around to all the different tables and stop to chat with the guests. If he didn't have his dialect and accent people would not care much for him other than he is checking in on them, but when his thick accent and terminology flow from him the guests are thrilled and experience is made better. In movies, such as the departed and goodwill hunting for example, I feel part of the charm of the movie is the accents of the people and feel that part of the movie is the setting and the setting wouldn't be as important if everyone spoke the same. I personally just feel that the world in general would be more bland of a place without dialects.
I think that dialects shouldn't be eliminated or embraced really. In my personal opinion, they should just be accepted and taken for what they are. Everyone speaks in a dialect, so it would be extremely difficult and time consuming to get rid of EVERY single person's dialect. Also, we just discussed in our class that no one even speaks flawless SE. We also read in a couple readings about how teachers need to change their attitudes towards dialects. But in addition to the need for teachers to capitalize on what students bring to the classroom, I think that the rest of the population needs to be more conscious of this too.
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