We frequently hear critics argue that U.S. students can’t write well and that there is a “literacy crisis” in the U.S. What is the origin of these discourses? What do they have to do with immigration, national security, and economics? How does the notion that Americans can’t write drive the national push to test writing? Here we explore the history of writing and testing in the U.S., the “science” and technology of testing approaches, and how the rhetoric of assessment impacts the lives of Americans today.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Family Guy

I thought that it was really interesting thinking about the dialect in Family Guy during class today. The brief discussion on the Rhode Island accents\dialects caught my attention and had me thinking the rest of the day. As I said in class, my whole family lives in Rhode Island so I'm pretty used to hearing their accents and the different sayings and words they like to use. There are a couple of points I want to bring up about this particular New England dialect.
One thing that I find to be so interesting about Rhode Island is that it's the smallest state, but the state has so many different dialects and accents. In class we talked about the difference between Peter and Lois's accents... and the way that they're depicted on the show really isn't an exaggeration. The Cranston accent and dialect is a lot rougher and more dramatic than what you would find if you stopped by Newport.
In our class we've been talking about the effect of dialect in the classroom. We specifically talked about the attitude of teachers towards certain dialects. Teachers don't really appreciate what these dialects are bringing to the classroom. They think that certain dialects sound less intelligent than others and try to phase them out and suppress them. I think that this is definitely in effect in Rhode Island. My younger cousins are in elementary and middle school and they barely have any kind of accent. There are a few words here and there that they say differently than me, but their accents are no where near the thickness of my parents and grandparents. I feel like this has to do something with the way some kids are schooled in New England.
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1 comment:

Kelsi Chuprinski said...

Are you suggesting that teachers are teaching that dialect is wrong and only Standard English is correct? Or are you saying that as children are taught Standard English in school, they are abandoning their dialect on their own accord because they know it’s “correct?”

If teachers are the ones discouraging dialect, I think that this is sad as a large part of culture is being lost. I do think that Standard English is the appropriate language for a classroom, but around peers, etc., dialect should be encouraged.

In my classroom someday, I think I’m going to have my class write a narrative using only their dialect and clichés and phrases popular to their culture, and then have them write that same paper using Standard English. I think this would be a cool way to get them to understand the differences between languages and learn to code-switch.

March 16, 2011 at 5:09 PM

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