|
DIALECTS AND LINGUISTIC ISSUES
Updated in September 2008
ADDED IN SEPTEMBER:(1) African American English and Its Relation to Literacy Skills in Early Adolescence: A Research Project. (2) Codes and Contexts -- Exploring Linguistic, Cultural, and Social Intelligence. (3) Tapping a National Resource: Heritage Languages in the United States. Titles are presented in alphabetical order.
African American English and Its Relation to Literacy Skills in Early Adolescence:
A Research ProjectFPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill This project “is part of the Teens in School Project, is a longitudinal research study of factors that influence African American youth's school success. This extension of research examines the production and development of African American English, the potential impact of vernacular dialect on the literacy acquisition of African Americans from entry to school through middle school, and the youth, family, and school factors that may affect this linkage. (The researchers) are currently following twp groups of African American youth and their families -- 70 youth who they have been following since infancy and 70 youth who they have been following since middle school.” A bibliography of articles is available at the website. Home page: http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~aae/#InformationabouttheAAEstudyOverviewThe bibliography:http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~aae/#InformationabouttheAAEstudyPublications
Aha Pūnana LeoHilo, Hawai’i “In the past twenty years, the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo has moved the Hawaiian language from a population with less than forty children speakers to one with over 2,000 children speakers. . . . The ‘Aha Pūnana Leo is an active partner in the community — both the Native Hawaiian community and the broader multiracial community of Hawai‘i, fostering academic, social and economic progress. The organization's reach expands beyond the Hawaiian Islands to other indigenous communities, especially other Native American communities, where the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo model is assisting other peoples in their efforts to save their languages from extinction.” Home page: http://www.ahapunanaleo.org/
Alaska Native Language Center: Documents
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
“The Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC) was established by state legislation in 1972 as a center for research and documentation of the twenty Native languages of Alaska. It is internationally known and recognized as the major center in the United States for the study of Eskimo and Northern Athabascan languages. ANLC publishes its research in story collections, dictionaries, grammars, and research papers. The center houses an archival collection of more than 10,000 items, virtually everything written in or about Alaska Native languages, including copies of most of the earliest linguistic documentation, along with significant collections about related languages outside Alaska.” Home page: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/
American Tongues: A Film on Vernacular Speech
Center for New American Media, New York City “This Peabody Award-winning look at American accents and their social implications . . . is a unique window on the way we judge people by the way they talk. American Tongues goes to the streets and the countryside to listen to American English in all its diversity.” 55-minute film. Overview: http://www.cnam.com/non_flash/language/american.html Purchase and rental information: http://www.cnam.com/order.html
Codes and Contexts:
Exploring Linguistic, Cultural, and Social IntelligenceThe ASHA Leader, (2007). American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rockville, Maryland. L-R. Cheng “Humans communicate by using codes, which are the vehicles for the transmission of meaning. Codes exhibit many properties; they are culturally defined and governed by rules. The many types of codes — verbal, nonverbal, paralanguage, and discourse — can be formal or informal, and the rules for using them may change depending on the contexts in which they are used.” The author describes attributes and contexts of codes within a framework of social and cultural intelligence. Full Text: http://www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/2007/070529/f070529b.htm
Contradictory Literacy Practices of Mexican-Background Students:
An Ethnography From the Rural Midwest
Bilingual Research Journal (2004). National Association for Bilingual Education and Southwest Center for Education Equity and Language Diversity, Arizona State University. H. Godina. “The author uses the term Mexican background to encompass both settled Mexican Americans and recent-immigrant Mexicanos. Literacy is investigated through English and Spanish in a sociocultural context. Findings reveal how Mexican-background students demonstrate different literacy practices in their homes and communities than those acknowledged at school. Educators in the school setting did not recognize Mexican-background students’ linguistic proficiency. In school, Mexican-background students were viewed in terms of their limited-English status and were mostly enrolled in low academic tracks. At home, Spanish-speaking parents relied on their children’s sophisticated translation abilities. Results indicate that the lost opportunities for effective literacy learning at school ignored the realistic responsibilities and potential of the Mexican-background students.” Abstract and click for full text :http://brj.asu.edu/content/vol28_no2/abstracts.html
Critical Language Awareness in the United States: Revisiting Issues and Revising Pedagogies in a Resegregated SocietyEducational Researcher. (2005). American Educational Research Association. H. S. Alim. “After reviewing what scholars have contributed, the author suggests the need for critical language awareness programs in the United States as one important way in which we can revise our pedagogies, not only to take the students’ language into account but also to account for the interconnectedness of language with the larger sociopolitical and sociohistorical phenomena that help to maintain unequal power relations in a still-segregated society.” Abstract (full text for purchase):
http://edr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/7/24
Developing the Soil for Diversity:
Opening the U.S. K-12 School Districts to Every Student
Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education. (2003). Eastern University, St. David’s, Pennsylvania. L. Bauer, I. Castañeda-Emenaker, J. E. Williams, & M. Phillips. “This paper discusses a small urban school district’s efforts to be responsive to its diverse populations (within the framework of English as a second language and dialects). Techniques for maximizing language minority students' and their communities' input into the public education provided for them” are the focus. The perspectives of evaluators of various races are of particular interest. Full text:http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2003spring/bauer_et_al.html
#Imelda%20Casta%f1eda-Emenaker,%20Ph.D.Difference or Deficit in Speakers of African American English?
What Every Clinician Should Know…and Do
The ASHA Leader. (2005). L. M. Bland-Stewart.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rockville, Maryland.
“One of the most important tasks of a clinician-and a continuing challenge-is determining when a true language disorder versus a language difference due to cultural linguistic factors exists in a speaker of African American English (AAE). At the core of the challenge is the issue of how to distinguish difference from deficit.” The author reviews this issue and describes three solutions. Full Text:http://www.asha.org/about/publications/leader-online/archives/2005/050503/f050503a.htm
Diné Bizaad (Navajo Language) at a Crossroads: Extinction or Renewal?
Bilingual Research Journal. (2005). National Association for Bilingual Education, and the Southwest Center for Education Equity and Language Diversity, Arizona State University. A. Benally & D. Viri “Until about 20 years ago, the Navajo language was one of the most resilient American Indian languages in modern U.S. history. Today, at the dawn of the 21st century, that has all changed. This paper addresses the differences between the normal changes and adaptation of Navajo as a living language and those that are indicative of language loss or other dramatic linguistic shifts that threaten its viability and survival.” Full text – Scroll to the fifth title:http://brj.asu.edu/content/vol29_no1/abstracts.html
Do You Speak American?
WNET New York. (2005). Public Broadcasting System.
The pages at this website offer interesting information on various aspects of languages spoken in the United States from the PBS series of the same name. Just a few include: (a) Words That Shouldn’t Be traces origins of new words and expressions that are coined, including Hip Hop and Spanglish; (b) From Sea to Shining Sea provides several levels of descriptions of American language varieties; (c) What Language Do We Like Best? explores language as prestige, language prejudice, and sociolinguistics; (c) Mapping Attitudes is a self-assessment on how “correctly” people speak in different U.S. regions, with feedback on views by people from various States. And there’s a lot more. Home page for all the features: http://www.pbs.org/speak/About the broadcast: http://www.pbs.org/speak/about/DVD, video, and book for purchase: http://www.pbs.org/speak/books/
Guidelines for Strengthening Indigenous Languages
Assembly of Alaska Native Educators, Anchorage, Alaska. (2001). Published by the Alaska Native Knowledge Network These guidelines “offer suggestions for Elders, parents, children, and educators to use in strengthening their heritage language with support from the Native community, schools, linguists, and education agencies. .. . The underlying theme is, to keep language going, we must use it in our daily activities at home and in the community so that it is transmitted and acquired naturally. The schools serve a supportive role by providing appropriate language immersion programs that strengthen the language used in the community.” Full text – Click on PDF at the lower right: http://ankn.uaf.edu/publications/language.html
Heritage Language Programs in the Era of English-Only and No Child Left BehindHeritage Language Journal. (2007). Center for World Languages of UCLA and the University of California Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching. W. E. Wright The author’s premise is that “there is a growing recognition of the need for Americans who are proficient in languages other than English; however, there is a great disconnect between these needs, state English-only education policies, and current federal education policy as realized through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. . . . Drawing on eight years of research, this article presents the cases of a variety of in-school and after school Heritage language programs serving Khmer (Cambodian), Spanish, and Native American heritage language learners from California, Arizona, and Texas which have been eliminated or substantially weakened due to current federal and state language and education policies. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for needed changes to policy which will encourage, rather than discourage, quality heritage language programs.” Full text – Click on Volume Five at the right (the opening page will show the current issue). http://www.heritagelanguages.org/
Heritage Language Revitalization: Planning Manual for Schools
Bilingual Multicultural Education Unit, New Mexico Public Education Department,
Santa Fe. (2003).
"This guide was written by the New Mexico Language Revitalization Task Force in order to provide a concise, practical manual for individuals and schools who are planning to begin a Heritage Language Program. . . . The State of New Mexico supports the use of a variety of program models, so that the language learning program may serve individual student needs appropriately. Several of these program models are appropriate for Heritage Language Learning: the Indigenous/Language Revitalization Model, the Maintenance Model, the Enrichment Model, and the Dual Language Immersion Model. A school or district may utilize more than one program model at one school, depending on the eligibility of students for the different models.” The guide provides a detailed practical explanation of procedures and strategies for implementing these models and other aspects of a Heritage Language Program. Full text – Click Volume 5 at the right. Also see related articles
http://www.ped.state.nm.us/BilingualMulticultural/index.html
Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC, and Delta Systems. (2001).
J. K. Peyton, D. A. Ranard, & S. McGinnis, Eds.
“This book describes speakers of the more than 100 heritage languages spoken in ethnic communities across the country. . . . It can be used by heritage community members, heritage and foreign language teachers and administrators, researchers, and policymakers to promote the maintenance and development of the languages in this country.” For purchase: http://www.cal.org/resources/pubs/heritage.html
In the Language of Our Ancestors: Programs in Montana and Washington Give Voice to Disappearing Words
Northwest Education. (2005).
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.
W. M. Berg.
“Students in Eva Boyd's class are typical teenagers. They fidget, wisecrack, talk to friends, and only occasionally pay attention. But when asked why they are in this class, they speak with one voice: We are losing our language; we want to preserve our heritage. The presence of these Salish teens in this classroom, along with Eva Boyd, a tribal elder, is testimony to that singular desire to save a culture by saving the language.” And that’s what this article is about – across Indian country.
Full text: http://www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-03/language.php
Indigenous Language Institute (ILI)
Santa Fe, New Mexico
“The Indigenous Language Institute is a publicly supported, 501(C)3 non-profit organization, which facilitates innovative, successful community-based initiatives for language revitalization through collaboration with other appropriate groups, organizations and individuals and promotes public awareness of the importance of indigenous language preservation. . . . ILI is national center for research, technical assistance and public education regarding indigenous language revitalization. ILI unifies and builds a network of language efforts among all 558+ indigenous communities of North America. . . The Institute studies, tests and produces innovative products and methods that support best practices in language acquisition and retention. . . . ILI’s Language Materials Development Center provides multimedia technology training to place skills into the hands of community language practitioners to develop materials in the Native languages. Native font and keyboard enablement, storybook creation, digital storytelling are some of the workshop topics. The audio services digitize older formats into current, stable media and the audio lab can be used for recording languages. . . . The Community Outreach Program disseminates the findings and results of the Research Program through its publications, seminars (both regional and national), workshops, consulting services to tribes, the website and newsletters. The Language Materials Repository is a reference library of language materials developed by various tribes and institutions that is available for research by community practitioners.”
Home page: http://www.indigenous-language.org/Showcase/index.html
Language and Linguistics: A Special Report National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia. (Undated).
This is an interesting and reader-friendly overview of language development, language learning, language change, endangered languages, dialects, and sign languages. Illustrations, examples, and links to additional information are provided.
Full text - Click at the left for all sections of the report: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/intro.jsp
Language Planning Challenges and Prospects
in Native American Communities and Schools
Education and the Public Interest Center, University of Colorado at Boulder
and Arizona State University. (2006). M. Eunice, T. L. McCarty, & R. Little
“The heritage language revitalization programs of the four Indigenous groups researched for this study show how Native children can acquire their heritage language without sacrificing their efforts to learn English. These programs are being tested by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and State policies that encourage the abandonment of heritage language programs in the name of raising test scores. The research shows that children who acquire proficiency in their heritage language generally outperform their peers on standardized tests.”
Full text:
http://www.epicpolicy.org/publication/
language-planning-challenges-and-prospects-native-american-communities-and-schools
Literacy in Indigenous Communities
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), Honolulu, Hawaii. (2000).
L. D. van Broekhuizen.
“This research synthesis explores the notions of national, mother-tongue, multiple, and bi-literacies. It presents important information pertaining to threatened languages, language shift, and language loss. Examples of culturally relevant uses of literacy in indigenous communities and issues related to first-language literacy instruction are also provided.”
Full text: http://www.prel.org/products/re_/indigenous.htm
Malik Goes to School: Examining the Language Skills of African American Students from Preschool-5th Grade
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, (2005).
H. Craig & J. Washington
This book “synthesizes a decade of research by the authors, Holly Craig and Julie Washington, on the oral language and literacy skills of African American children from preschool to fifth grade. Their research has characterized significant influences on the child's use of African American English and the relationship between African American English and aspects of literacy acquisition. . . . The outcome has been a culture-fair, child-centered language evaluation protocol. . . . The book has direct relevance to academic planning, clinical decision-making, curriculum development, and educational policymaking.”
For purchase:
http://www.routledge.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=&isbn=9780805858112&
parent_id=&pc=/shopping_cart/search/search.asp?
Book review: http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev553.htm
Online Collection of National Heritage Language Program Profiles
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC. (Ongoing Collection)“The Online Collection of National Heritage Language
Program Profiles allows heritage language programs in community-based, K–12, and university settings to form a network to exchange ideas and resources with one another.” The profiles are organized by language and by type of program.Profiles: http://www.cal.org/heritage/profiles/index.html
Papers on Teaching Indigenous Languages
Teaching Indigenous Languages. Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.
This web site is an outgrowth of a series of annual conferences started in 1994 at Northern Arizona University focusing on the linguistic, educational, social, and political issues related to the survival of the endangered indigenous languages of the world. The first two conferences were funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (as of 2002 the Office of English Language Acquisition). The Twelfth Annual Conference was held in June 2005. The date of the 2006 conference in Buffalo NY will be announced. This website makes available full-text papers from the 1997 through 2003 conferences, as well as more than 50 columns from the newsletter of the National Association for Bilingual Education, and links to papers from other sources.
Home page: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TIL.html
Preparing Teachers for Dialectically Diverse Classrooms
Educational Researcher. (2006). American Educational Research Association. A. J. Godley, J. Sweetland, R. S. Wheeler, A. Minnici, & B. D. Carpenter.“Although numerous pedagogical approaches have been shown to provide productive alternatives to traditional responses to stigmatized dialects, research on public perceptions and teachers’ attitudes suggests that negative beliefs about stigmatized dialects and the students who speak them are deeply entrenched in U.S. society. The authors argue that teacher preparation grounded in socio-linguistic understandings of dialect diversity can help teachers develop productive pedagogical responses to students’ language choices. Drawing on previous research and their own work with teachers, the authors present a framework for preparing teachers for dialectally diverse classrooms.”Abstract (full text for purchase):http://edr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/8/30
Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom.
Barnes & Noble. (2003). L. Delpit & J. K. Dowdy (Eds.).
“The author of Other People's Children joins with other experts to examine the relationship between language and power in the classroom. The Skin That We Speak takes the discussion of language in the classroom beyond the highly charged war of idioms and presents today's teachers with a thoughtful exploration of the varieties of English that we speak. . . . At a time when children are written off in our schools because they do not speak formal English, and when the class- and race-biased language used to describe those children determines their fate, The Skin That We Speak offers a cutting-edge look at crucial educational issues.” The authors include Lisa Delpit, Herbert Kohl. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Victoria Purcell-Gates, Genever Smitherman, and Asa Hilliard.
For purchase:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?
userid=Jf66kOYBtG&pwb=1&ean=9781565848207
Special Issue on Chinese
Heritage Language Journal. (2006). Center for World Languages,
University of California, Los Angeles.
This theme issue of the journal includes (a) Toward an Identity Theory of the Development of Chinese as a Heritage Language; (b) Voices From the Margin: Developing a Profile of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in the Foreign Language Classroom; (c) Heritage Learners in the Chinese Language Classroom: Home Background; and (d) a book review
Full text of entire special issue – Click on Volume Four at the right (the opening page will show
the current issue). http://www.heritagelanguages.org/
Speculations on the Future of the Spanish Language in the United States Fifth International Symposium on Bilingualism, Barcelona, Spain. (2005).
Josue M. Gonzales, Southwest Center for Education Equity
and Language Diversity, Arizona State University.
This presentation covers the (a) indicators of the future prospects of the Spanish language; (b) research on language vitality and other factors; (c) outcomes of manifest destiny; (d) data on speakers of Spanish and other languages in the U.S; (e) Spanish language media; and (f) the hegemony of English.
PowerPoint:
http://www.asu.edu/educ/sceed/presentations/isb5_gonzalez/index.html
Talkin Black Talk: Language, Education, and Social Change
Teachers College Press, New York City. (2006). H. S. Alim & J. Baugh (Eds.)“Bringing together some of the leading scholars in the study of Black language, culture, and education, this book presents creative, classroom-based, hands-on pedagogical approaches (from Hip Hop culture to the art of teaching reading comprehension) within the context of the broader, global concerns that impact schooling. . . . The book (a) presents an interdisciplinary approach on language education, with contributions from leading experts in education, literacy, sociolinguistics, anthropology, and literary studies; (b) contextualizes the education of marginalized youth within the continuing struggle for equal language rights, and (c) promotes an action agenda for social change.”For purchase: http://store.tcpress.com/0807747467.shtml
Tapping a National Resource: Heritage Languages in the United StatesCenter for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC. (2002).R. D. Brecht & C. W. Ingold“The United States has an unprecedented need for individuals with highly developed language competencies not only in English, our societal language, but also in many other languages. . . . There exists a largely untapped reservoir of linguistic competence in this country, namely heritage language speakers-the millions of indigenous, immigrant, and refugee individuals who are proficient in English and also have skills in other languages that were developed at home, in schools, in their countries of origin, or in language programs provided by their communities in the United States. This digest outlines the reasons for and challenges of developing the language skills of heritage language speakers and describes one effort to carry this out, the Heritage Languages Initiative.”Full text: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0202brecht.html
Teaching About Dialects
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC. (2001). K. Hazen.
“This digest addresses some of the difficulties teachers may encounter in teaching about dialects and provides several activities for helping students learn more about language and understand that language variation is a natural phenomenon. . . . Ideally, by learning about how language varies geographically and socially, students will come to understand at least two basic facts about language: (a) that language changes over time, and (b) that language use is linked to social identity.”
Full text: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0104dialects.html
The Language We Cry In: Black Language Practice at a Post-Desegregated Urban High School
Perspectives on Urban Education, University of Pennsylvania. (2004).
G. A. Duncan & R. Jackson.
The authors “suggest that the significance of the language practices of the black male students in this study is largely moral and political in nature. Data discussed in this paper provide insights into ways that young black males make sense of and negotiate academic and social settings in a school where they appear to be always outnumbered. . . . Overall, the stories of the young men in the broader project depict unjust conditions at school; they also illustrate the strategies these students employ to negotiate their academic and social lives within these institutions. To what extent may their experiences inform educational practice and policy? The data tell us something about the nature of schooling in post-Civil Rights America and even about ourselves as teachers and researchers that runs counter to conventional wisdom about public education fifty years after Brown.”
Full text: http://www.urbanedjournal.org/archive/vol3issue1/articles/article0014.html
Vernacular Dialects in U.S. Schools
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington DC. (1997). D. Christian.
The author points out that “children from different backgrounds come to school speaking a wide variety of dialects. Should our schools try to teach all students to use a standard dialect? If so, how? If not, how should different dialects be handled in the school setting? What impact does speaking a non-school dialect have on students' academic success and on their interactions with others in and out of school?” The paper discusses: (a) consequences of dialect differences; (b) difference vs deficit; (c) guidelines for teaching a standard dialect; and (d) dialect diversity as an opportunity, not a liability.
Full text: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/christ01.html
“What Do We Do About Student Grammar – All Those Missing -ed’s and -s’s?”
Using Comparison and Contrast to Teach Standard English in Dialectally Diverse Classrooms
English Teaching: Practice and Critique. (2006). School of Education,
University of Waikato, New Zealand. R. Wheeler.
“This paper explores the long and winding road to integrating linguistic approaches to vernacular dialects in the classroom. After exploring past roadblocks, the author shares vignettes and classroom practices of her collaborator, Rachel Swords, who has succeeded in bringing Contrastive Analysis and Code-Switching to her second and third-grade students (children 7 and 8 years old) in urban Virginia. The author then shares principles that have allowed her to successfully defuse social and political concerns of principals, central school office administrators, teachers, students, parents, politicians and reporters, as she shows how to use tools of language and culture to teach Standard English in urban areas.”
This information is an attempt to gather wide-ranging information in one place, to convey what others have accomplished, and to make valuable resources readily accessible. Information is presented in the language of the developer, publisher, distributor, or author. The Southeast Regional Resource Center has no ownership of anything described in this library.
Readers should review the copyright and distribution policies shown at the websites of the sources. SERRC is not the source of any document in this library, but simply conveys information to show the availability of these resources.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position of policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and no endorsement of the U.S. Department of Education should be inferred. Information from sources funded by the U.S. Department of Education is likely to have been vetted by the Department; information from other sources is unlikely to have been vetted.
|
