politics of language

This topic of teaching standard English can be really touchy. I have had an American Dialects class that has really helped me understand this issue. Right now I am doing a pre-internship where the majority of the students speak and write in African American Vernacular English. I have had a chance to read some of their work, but I'm not sure how the teacher deals with this issue yet. It is a seventh grade class and I'm not sure what they have or have not been exposed to for writing in Standard English. It is obviously something that needs to be taught but I can see how their language can be an important tool for them.

If students can freely put ideas on paper in their vernacular, it is at least getting them to write. How to get them to correct their writing may be a much larger task. However, there is something about the vernacular that can add to their writing. I believe that if students are quoting, or using any kind of dialog that would be spoken in a vernacular, that it probably should be written like that. I think this is a way to express a value in the student's home language, while teaching them that they must also write in the standard when it is appropriate.

Pronunciation is a tougher aspect of the standard. All accross the country their are different ways of pronouncing words. The poem "Rayford's Song" seems to point out how the standard seems to be over emphasized. In a song, I believe it would be perfectly natural for pronunciation to differ from the standard. I think that teaching this poem in schools, especially where Standard English is not the standard, would encourage students to think and write about their own experiences. There is a fine line between standard and vernacular. Hopefully we can meet in the middle, and appreciate both.