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thoughts during break
I'm usually better than this at posting on time...
It's good to be on fall break. I think I needed it. I'm very happy to be back home, and yesterday I went to a friend's wedding. I've known the girl since first grade, and it freaked me out. But that's not the point of this entry. This is a comment both on my placement and what we've been discussing in class as far as ESL goes.
First, everything has been resolved as far as my placement goes. Mr. Metz gave me this week off because of fall break, which is nice, but probably not what I need. I'm going to go in next Tuesday and try taking a more proactive approach and getting more involved in the classroom. I love the students and I want to get to know them better. My classroom is somewhat diverse; there are 9 black and 12 Hispanic students in the class, although I suspect a few were absent when I took that note. There are no white students. For many of them, English is not their first language, and often I hear students speaking Spanish in the hallway or to each other in class. I hear a lot of Spanglish, when it sounds like students don't know the correct word for what they want to say. One girl has the phrase "Mexicana mi orgullo" on her notebook--"proud to be a Mexican." They embrace their culture, use it casually; school, and therefore Standard English, don't seem to hold much interest. To be fair, no one in the class speaks Standard English, even to the teacher. I don't know if they're familiar with the concept. Their dialects are their language, their English. I hope they're learning something from this teacher, but it isn't Standard English. The thing is, I don't think they're going to need it. I listen to them talk and I hear the dialect of countless working people that I know. They don't use Standard English, so what's the point in teaching it? I'd argue that Standard English is becoming obsolete, or at least unnecessary.
I don't discredit the high opinion of Standard English, but I would say that I don't think it should be the determining factor of someone's intelligence. If you know your stuff, it shouldn't matter how you talk. Coming from me, a self-proclaimed grammar Nazi, this is kind of surprising, but I think it might be time to let go of Standard English. Comments?
It's good to be on fall break. I think I needed it. I'm very happy to be back home, and yesterday I went to a friend's wedding. I've known the girl since first grade, and it freaked me out. But that's not the point of this entry. This is a comment both on my placement and what we've been discussing in class as far as ESL goes.
First, everything has been resolved as far as my placement goes. Mr. Metz gave me this week off because of fall break, which is nice, but probably not what I need. I'm going to go in next Tuesday and try taking a more proactive approach and getting more involved in the classroom. I love the students and I want to get to know them better. My classroom is somewhat diverse; there are 9 black and 12 Hispanic students in the class, although I suspect a few were absent when I took that note. There are no white students. For many of them, English is not their first language, and often I hear students speaking Spanish in the hallway or to each other in class. I hear a lot of Spanglish, when it sounds like students don't know the correct word for what they want to say. One girl has the phrase "Mexicana mi orgullo" on her notebook--"proud to be a Mexican." They embrace their culture, use it casually; school, and therefore Standard English, don't seem to hold much interest. To be fair, no one in the class speaks Standard English, even to the teacher. I don't know if they're familiar with the concept. Their dialects are their language, their English. I hope they're learning something from this teacher, but it isn't Standard English. The thing is, I don't think they're going to need it. I listen to them talk and I hear the dialect of countless working people that I know. They don't use Standard English, so what's the point in teaching it? I'd argue that Standard English is becoming obsolete, or at least unnecessary.
I don't discredit the high opinion of Standard English, but I would say that I don't think it should be the determining factor of someone's intelligence. If you know your stuff, it shouldn't matter how you talk. Coming from me, a self-proclaimed grammar Nazi, this is kind of surprising, but I think it might be time to let go of Standard English. Comments?