Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse

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Codeswitching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom 470 Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom Codeswitching and contrastive analysis are tools Rebecca S. Wheeler of language and culture that can transform Rachel Swords literacy instruction.

Student: Mrs. Swords, why you be teachin’ maf in da aftanoon?

Mrs. Swords: Why do I what?

Student: Why you be teachin’ maf in da aftanoon?

Mrs. Swords: Why do I what?

Student: Why you be teachin’ maf in da aftanoon?

Mrs. Swords: We don’t say, “why you be teaching math in the afternoon. . . .” We say, “Why are you teaching math in the afternoon?”

Student: Oh, OK.

The next day the child would begin again, “Mrs. Swords, why do we be havin’ maf in da aftanoon?” And Rachel would reply, “Why do we what?” It was always the same. She would attempt to “correct” the her students would begin: “Mrs. After Rachel realized why the ques- child’s “error,” but it was clear that Swords, why you be...? Is you? tions had stopped, she tried another, no learning was taking place. Ain’t you? Never mind.” The stu- more passive approach. When a Rachel Swords began her career in dents knew she was going to correct child asked, “Mrs. Swords, why you an urban elementary school by cor- them. They tried to ask the question be teachin’ maf afta lunch?” she recting every sentence she deemed in the form the school system would repeat their question in incorrect. She noticed as time went wanted, but they didn’t know how. Mainstream American English on, however, that her students were Rather than risk the embarrassment (“Why do I teach math after asking significantly fewer questions. of being corrected in front of the lunch?”) and then answer it, also in She would call for questions and class, students became silent. the same language variety. While

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this method didn’t embarrass the Communication, the de-facto lingua that affirms the rule-governed children or hinder their questioning, franca of the U.S. nature of all language varieties the children’s language did not The motivation for this article lies holds promise in fostering a cultur- change. Even though Rachel consis- in our desire to bring the insights of ally compatible classroom. In turn, a tently corrected their speech and 20th-century linguistics to bear on culturally consonant classroom, en- writing, her students still did not the achievement gap, the “devastat- gaging the student far more broadly, learn the standard English forms. ing rates at which schools fail Afri- holds promise for reducing the Concern with the vernacular dialects can American students” (Rickford, achievement gap in America. our children bring to school has 1999, p. 22). Rickford asserts that We chart our course in two voices, 471 been long-standing. Heath (1983) “the evidence that schools are fail- that of a university professor and noted that school desegregation in Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom the 1960s brought out these issues: English teachers routinely equate standard English with “Academic questions about how children talk when they come to “grammar,” as if other language varieties and styles school and what educators should lack grammar, the systematic and rule-governed know and do about oral and written backbone of language. language were echoed in practical pleas of teachers who asked: ‘What ing massive numbers of African stu- that of an urban third-grade teacher. do I do in my classroom on Monday dents with existing methods is so Rachel shares her movement as a morning?’” (p. 1). Now, more than overwhelming that it would be teacher from a monodialectal, mono- 30 years later, teachers remain con- counterproductive and offensive to cultural model to a multidialectal, cerned. Christenbury (2000) has continue using them uncritically” multicultural model of language arts observed that “[o]ne of the most (p. 3). Accordingly, we offer some of in her classroom. Understanding the controversial—and difficult—issues our ideas for creating an accessible, nature of language variation (across for English teachers is their respon- research-based approach to lan- region, ethnic identity, social class, sibility to students who speak what guage arts in the dialectally diverse, language styles, and registers) pro- is considered “nonstandard” En- multicultural classroom. vides language arts teachers with a glish, English that violates the usage While the jury is still out on whether fertile ground from which to build a rules we often mistakenly call dialect contrast actually interferes welcoming, multicultural language ‘grammar’” (p. 202). with reading comprehension, it is arts classroom. Christenbury’s comment sets the clearly the case that when an urban stage for the central focus of our ar- teacher tells minority-language stu- TRADITIONAL LANGUAGE ARTS ticle. English teachers routinely dents that their language is wrong METHODS FAIL MANY AFRICAN equate standard English with “gram- and error-filled, she creates a seri- AMERICAN STUDENTS mar,” as if other language varieties ously deleterious effect in the class- and styles lack grammar, the system- room. As the teacher seeks to Rachel became involved in this atic and rule-governed backbone of eradicate vernacular language and project because of her concern over language. Yet, the child who speaks culture, not only does she remove a how her students fared on statewide in a vernacular dialect is not making link that could bring relevance to tests. “When last year’s disaggre- language errors; instead, she or he is the classroom lives of the children, gated scores for the Virginia Stan- speaking correctly in the language of but she assails the child’s family and dards of Learning tests (SOL) were the home discourse community. home community, thus contributing put up on the board, in every case, Teachers can draw upon the lan- to a barrier between the values of our Black children were performing guage strengths of urban learners to home and school. As a result, even if much lower than our White chil- help students codeswitch—choose the the contrast of dialect structure itself dren. It is very disheartening to say language variety appropriate to the is not found to significantly impede that I’ve taught the same way to all time, place, audience, and commu- children’s performance, teachers’ ex- the children all year long and my nicative purpose. In doing so, we pectations and perspectives on di- White children are passing the tests honor linguistic and cultural diver- alects, cultures, and the vernacular and my Black children are not. Then sity, all the while fostering students’ speakers themselves do hamper chil- our principal put up the scores for mastery of the Language of Wider dren’s learning. Hence, an approach the entire district; it looked exactly JUL-LA2.QXD 6/4/2004 5:06 PM Page 472

the same. The children speaking lar English (AAVE)—different from school system, which was seen as African American vernacular are the language of the school (Delpit, the particular possession and expres- doing significantly worse on the 1995; Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, sion of the dominant white society” writing test—not two or three points. 1998). While speaking a vernacular (Labov, 1995, p. 42). In turn, schools In some schools, African American dialect has been correlated with may ban literature reflecting African students scored 36 points lower reading failure, scholars continue to American language and culture. One than White children on average.” debate whether dialectal contrasts Virginia librarian commented to us Such disparities of language perfor- cause failure. that “no children’s books containing 472 mance are neither isolated nor re- As of the mid 1990s, “the conclusion African American dialect are avail- stricted to Virginia. Rickford (1996) of most sociolinguists was that the able in our school. This is a very

Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom reported the results of a study of semantic and structural differences controversial topic.” As Smitherman student writing performance across between AAVE and other dialects observed, “[W]hen you lambast the school districts contrasting in eth- were not great enough to be the pri- home language that kids bring to nicity and socioeconomic standing. school, you ain just dissin dem, you The study revealed that: talking bout they mommas!” (quoted Beyond linguistic in Richardson, 2002, p. 677). . . . third grade kids in the primarily structure, cultural Further, as teachers absorb “wide- white, middle class Palo Alto School spread, destructive myths about lan- District scored on the 94th percentile conflict lies at the guage variation” (Wolfram, 1999, in writing; by the [sixth] grade, they heart of why schools p. 78), their cultural vantage turns had topped out at the 99[th] per- to pedagogical damage. In other centile. By contrast, third grade kids fail African Americans. in primarily African American work- words, whether black or white, a ing class East Palo Alto (Ravenswood mary causes of reading failure” teacher is likely to consider a child School District) scored on the 21st (Labov, 1995, pp. 48–49). Indeed, speaking African American Vernac- percentile in writing, but by the sixth some educational researchers have ular English as slower, less able, and grade, they had fallen to the 3rd per- found no particular dialectal intru- less intelligent than the child who centile, almost to the very bottom sion in the reading process (Good- speaks standard English (Labov, (p. 1). man & Goodman, 2000). Yet, others 1995). Such dialect prejudice re- demonstrated that “dialect is a duces teacher expectations for the Similar statistics can be found in source of reading interference” for child’s abilities (Baugh, 2000). As many other school districts and speakers of AAVE and that the teacher expectations are reduced, so states. Minority language children syntax of AAVE verb phrases re- potential child performance is di- seem to be confronting a brick wall sulted in African American students minished (Delpit & Dowdy, 2002; when it comes to performance on losing information regarding time Nieto, 2000). No wonder that under standardized tests. structure of events in the test read- these conditions, “the longer Afri- The question of why African Ameri- ing passage (Steffensen, Reynolds, can American inner city kids stay in can students struggle revolves McClure, & Guthrie, 1982, p. 296). school, the worse they do” (Rick- around issues of language and cul- And in an experiment on vernacular ford, 1996, p. 1). ture, poverty, distribution of goods speakers’ acquisition of consonant and resources, the physical condi- clusters, Labov and Baker (n.d.) TRADITIONAL RESPONSES tions of school buildings, the train- found that “variability in speech is TO LANGUAGE VARIETIES: ing of teachers in urban schools, responsible in part for difficulties in and ethnic and linguistic bias in decoding” standard English (p. 15). CORRECTION DOES NOT WORK standardized tests, just to name a Thus, results are inconclusive on It is not surprising that Rachel’s few factors. While all of these issues whether contrast of dialect structure initial attempts to “correct” her need to be addressed, we focus here itself hampers language-minority children’s language did not pro- on approaches to language and cul- children in reading standard English. duce change in their performance. ture in the linguistically diverse Beyond linguistic structure, cultural As Gilyard (1991) shares in his ac- urban classroom. conflict lies at the heart of why count of his life as a black child in We know that many urban African schools fail African Americans. the American educational system, American children speak a language Thus, in Harlem, the child’s cultural “generations of Black English variety—African American Vernacu- system “opposed the values of the speakers have been subjected to

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‘correction’ programs that haven’t each is systematic and rule-governed sations) on the basis of speakers’ worked” (p. 114). (Adger, Christian & Taylor, 1999; “age, socioeconomic status, gender, Teachers envision a single “right Delpit, 1995; Perry & Delpit, 1998; ethnic group membership, and geo- way” to construct a sentence (Birch, Smitherman, 1981; Wolfram, Adger graphic region” (Wolfram, Adger, & 2001) and so criticize student writ- & Christian, 1999). Christian, 1999, p. 37). This means ing such as: Instead of seeking to correct or that so-called “standard” English is eradicate styles of language, we a dialect of English. Contrary to • I have two sister and two brother. may add language varieties to the popular understanding, “‘[d]ialect’ • Christopher family moved to Spain. child’s linguistic toolbox, bringing a does not mean a marginal, archaic, 473 pluralistic vantage to language in rustic, or degraded mode of speech”

• Last year, he watch all the shows. the classroom (Gilyard, 1991; (Pullum, 1999, p. 44). Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom Teachers often view this kind of McWhorter, 1998). Such an ap- Register refers to the ways in which writing as error-filled, believing that proach allows us to maintain the language varies by specific speech the child does not know how to language of the student’s home situations (e.g., newspaper head- show plurality, possession, and community (CCCC,1974), while lines, rituals, recipes, technical writ- tense. Believing that the student has adding the linguistic tools needed ing, and even baby talk). left off the plural marker, the apos- for success in our broader society— While variation in language struc- trophe ‘–s,’ and ‘–ed,’ teachers will Mainstream American English. ture is always present, a different respond, “That’s not how you do it!” kind of variation lies in the public’s KEY NOTIONS FROM This approach seeks to eradicate the attitudes toward language. “Stan- child’s home language. APPLIED LINGUISTICS dard” English is often called “good” Christenbury (2000) observes that A cluster of notions from applied English while “nonstandard” En- “telling or teaching students that linguistics underlies our work with glish is considered “bad.” These their language is wrong or bad is not language in the classroom: dialect, judgments are not based on linguis- only damaging, but false” (p. 203). language variety, style, and regis- tic grounds, but on sociopolitical Doing so presupposes that only one ter. Three insights about language considerations. Thus, what we call language form is “correct” in struc- serve as a foundation for all of the standard is the language variety ture and that this form is “good” in these terms: “associated with middle-class, edu- all contexts. Joos (1961) comments, cated, native speakers of the region” • Language is structured. (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 1998, It is still our custom unhesitatingly • Language varies by circumstance p. 284). People regard this variety as and unthinkingly to demand that the of use. good because they regard its speak- clocks of language all be set to Cen- ers as meritorious, but this judg- tral Standard time....But English, • Difference is distinct from deficiency. ment has nothing to do with an like national languages in general, A dialect is a “variety of the lan- inherent structural superiority of so- has five clocks. And the times that guage associated with a particular called “standard” English. they tell are not simply earlier and later; they differ sidewise, too, and in regional or social group” (Wolfram Vernaculars or nonstandard varieties several directions. Naturally. A com- & Schilling-Estes, 1998, p. 350). are those “varieties of a language munity has a complex structure, with Since everyone is associated with a that are not classified as standard variously differing needs and occa- particular regional or social group, dialects” (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, sions. How could it scrape along everyone speaks a dialect. Also 1998, p. 13). They contain socially with only one pattern of English usage? (pp. 4–5). A different response to language becomes possible once While the traditional approach at- we recognize that language comes in different varieties tempts to correct, repress, eradicate, or subtract student language that and styles, and each is systematic and rule-governed. differs from the standard written target, a different response to lan- known as language varieties, di- stigmatized features such as the so- guage becomes possible once we alects vary in structure (sound, called English double negative (“I recognize that language comes in vocabulary, grammar, and social ain’t got none”) or irregular verb different varieties and styles, and conventions for structuring conver- forms (“I seen it”). Just as the public JUL-LA2.QXD 6/4/2004 5:06 PM Page 474

holds standard varieties in high strengths of the language each control group, using the correction- regard because of their high regard child brings to school. ist model, showed an 8.5% increase for their speakers, the public holds in African American features in vernaculars in low regard and typi- DISCOVERING A NEW their writing after 11 weeks, but the cally views its speakers with disre- experimental group, using a tech- VANTAGE ON LANGUAGE gard. The judgment of badness is nique called contrastive analysis, sociopolitical and has nothing to do IN THE CLASSROOM showed a remarkable 59.3% de- with any structural inadequacy of Rebecca teaches a class on language crease in African American vernac- 474 vernacular dialects. varieties in the schools and commu- ular features. Taylor observed that Finally, “standard” English is a mis- nities, where graduate students ex- students had been neither aware of

Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom nomer, implying that only one stan- plore how all language is structured their dialect nor of “grammatical dard exists. Yet, we can readily and how the choice of language black English features that interfere identify a range of standards from form is based on setting. This insight in their writing” (p. 150). By con- Formal Standard English (Written is actually quite hard to hear, so im- trasting the language varieties, Standard English of grammar books, mersed is our culture in the view students were able to learn the de- reference works, and the most es- that standard English is the only real tailed differences between the two, tablished mainstream authors), In- language and everything else is de- thereby “limit[ing] AAVE intrusions formal Standard English (a spoken graded. But when students examined into their SE usage” (Rickford, variety defined by the absence of their assumptions in the class, they 1997, p. 4). socially stigmatized structures), as could perceive structures and pat- The same kind of approach was also well as Regional Standards (the ac- terns they hadn’t recognized before. implemented by teachers in DeKalb cepted dialect of English in a partic- Classroom results reported from County, Georgia, who helped young ular region) (Wolfram & Chicago and Georgia were particu- speakers of minority dialects explic- Schilling-Estes, 1998). larly revealing. In Chicago, Taylor itly contrast their mother tongue Although the issues of language (1991) studied student performance with the standard dialect. Thus, when standardization and instruction are across two kinds of college writing a fifth grader answered a question complex, our core point remains: classrooms. With one group, she with a double negative (“not no Language is structured. Its struc- used the traditional English tech- more”), the teacher prompted the stu- ture varies by circumstance. But to niques while in the other classroom, dent to “codeswitch,” to which the perceive this, we must let go of she led her students in explicit dis- student replied, “not any more.” The blinding conventional assumptions. covery by contrasting the grammat- children learned to switch from their Only then can we build upon the ical patterns of AAVE and SE. The home speech to school speech at appropriate times and places, and to recognize that “the dialect they might use at home is valuable and ‘effective’ in that setting, but not for school, for work—or for American democracy” (Cumming, 1997, p. B1). This program has been designated a “center of excellence” by the Na- tional Council of Teachers of English.

RACHEL SPEAKS OF HER CLASSROOM JOURNEY: MOVING FROM CORRECTION TO CONTRAST In my third-grade classroom, I noticed that vernacular patterns in- truded in many of my students’ writings. As a correctionist, I would explain what we do and do not say.

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For example, when a student wrote, shows in levels of formality) within of working with these children, “the three friend went for a walk,” their own variety, in this case, and I had spent more than a year my initial reaction was to correct my AAVE. In this way, my students teaching them the right and wrong student’s grammar by explaining the were able to use their own prior way to construct a sentence, they need for an ‘–s’ on the end of plural knowledge to define formal and in- couldn’t figure out why I would pur- nouns. But after Rebecca’s class, I de- formal language. posely write an incorrect sentence. cided to use a contrastive approach. We applied our understanding to the To address the students’ confusion, I The first notion students needed was grammar of sentences. Using chart reminded them about our explo- that language varies (among other paper, I created two columns of sen- rations of formal and informal styles 475 things) by formality of situation. To tences drawn from my students’ of clothing and language. We looked teach this concept, we discussed own writing with the left one writ- at how language varies by region of Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom formal and informal clothing. First, ten in standard English (“I have two the country, and I talked about how I I asked students what kind of dogs”) and the right showing the switch my language to suit the set- clothes they wore to school. Since same sentences written in the ver- ting. For example, I have a rather the school has a fairly strict dress nacular of many of my students (“I thick southern accent. At home I code, the students named permitted have two dog”). might say, “I’m fixin’ to go to the clothing such as collared shirts, I labeled the SE examples as “formal/ store—ya’ll need anything?” How- slacks, and belts. When I asked the written language” and the vernacu- ever, I certainly wouldn’t ask my students what they liked to wear at lar examples as “informal/spoken fellow Virginia teachers, “I’m fixin’ home on the weekends, they re- to make copies—ya’ll need any?” I sponded, “jeans, tee shirts, sweat- know this language variety is not pants, and swimsuits.” My students were able appropriate at school. Instead, I might say, “I’m going to make some We brainstormed places or events to use their own copies. Do you need any?” I talked to that we might attend, aside from prior knowledge to the students about how I change my school, where more formal clothing language setting-by-setting and told was required. The students gave ex- define formal and them that when I make these lan- amples such as church, weddings, informal language. guage choices, I am codeswitching. and graduations. They determined that informal clothing would be To codeswitch is to choose the pat- more appropriate for playing bas- language.” We began with plural tern of language appropriate to the ketball, watching TV, and going to patterns because I knew that my stu- context. This is what I want my stu- the pool. dents would immediately see the dif- dents to be able to do—choose the ference between the formal and language form appropriate to the I asked how their language might informal usage. By putting SE on time, place, audience, and commu- differ between formal and informal the left side, and AAVE on the right, nicative purpose (Ezarik, 2002). I use situations. The students explained given our left-right reading conven- a classroom technique called con- that “yes, sir” and “excuse me” were tions, I implicitly (and later explic- trastive analysis to support children formal and that “yo, wa’s up?” and itly) suggested that we might move in learning how to codeswitch be- “he ain’ nobody” were more infor- not only from vernacular to stan- tween informal and formal language mal. As we thought back on an ex- dard, but also from standard to ver- patterns (Baugh, 1999; Cumming, change between two students in our nacular. Such even-handedness 1997; Rickford, 1998; Schierloh, class, I wrote the following on the between varieties is crucial. 1991; Taylor, 1991; Wheeler, 2001). board for group discussion. We then compared and contrasted Of course, the contrasts of formal/ Student 1: “Yo, Mz. Swords! Dat junk the sentences in each column. Im- informal (or written/spoken, or be tight!” mediately, one child said, “Oh, that’s home/school) are oversimplifica- wrong. All the ones on that side [in- tions of the different ways that lan- Student 2: “McKinzie! You ain sposed formal] are wrong and the ones on guage is patterned by variety and ta talk t’ Mrs. Swords dat way.” the other side [formal] are right.” style, but the key point I wanted to But another child said, “How is it convey was one of contrast—that Clearly, students come to school al- wrong? Mrs. Swords wrote it!” Stu- different language patterns are ready having a good grasp of lan- dents were clearly confused. After appropriate to different contexts. guage style (the variation language all, since this was my second year Formal/informal was a rough and JUL-LA2.QXD 7/22/2004 8:50 AM Page 476

ready way to get that notion across the children’s observations under ample, but I always use sentences se- with third graders. the formal column. lected from students’ writing. Moving back to the chart, I asked Then we looked at the informal ex- I wrote the term “possessive” on the the students if they understood ample, exploring its patterns. Re- board, and asked if the students what each sentence meant and if minding the children that the knew what it meant. If children the informal sentence, “I have 2 examples had the same meaning, I don’t know, I explain that possession dog,” had the same meaning as the asked how the informal sentence means “someone owns something” formal one, “I have 2 dogs.” Again, shows us that the number is more and provide several examples. 476 Students looked closely at the under- The key point I wanted to convey was one lined words on the chart and worked Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom of contrast—that different language patterns in small groups to find ways to de- scribe how each language variety ex- are appropriate to different contexts. presses ownership. When the entire class reconvened, students shared the class agreed they did, so, I than one. One child said, “You know their responses and constructed a rule asked, “If we can tell what they it’s more than one because it has the for using possessive patterns in the mean, what differences do you see number ‘two’ in it.” So I wrote, two language varieties. For example, between the two columns?” “number words” under informal, in informal English, possession = Since we had previously talked commenting that “number words owner + owned (‘the boy coat’). How- about nouns and pronouns, the show there’s more than one.” Then ever, in formal English, possession = children were easily able to articu- we looked at “Taylor likes cat.” This owner + ’s + owned (‘the boy’s coat’). late responses. One child explained, sentence is difficult because nothing Once this rule was determined, stu- “In this one [the formal form], the in the sentence tells the reader that dents made up additional examples. noun has an ‘–s’ on it.” I asked, it’s more than one cat. The children Through these instructional strate- “What does that mean? What is the explained, “You have to look at the gies, we discover the grammatical ‘–s’ doing there?” They said, “It’s whole paragraph.” So I wrote, “other rules of each language variety. making it more than one.” We words in the paragraph,” comment- talked about how the ‘–s’ makes it ing that “other words in the para- LANGUAGE VARIETIES IN graph show there’s more than one.” more than one. I then explained READING AND WRITING that this is the way we show “more Next we looked at “all the boy are than one” in formal language (see here today.” I asked, “What tells you Like most teachers, I integrate litera- Figure 1). To help the children, I there is more than one boy?” One ture into the topics we are currently created a heading for the patterns child replied, “The other words in the studying. My interest in using con- they were discovering—(how to sentence—‘all’.” So, I wrote on our trastive analysis was reflected in show “more than one”) and wrote chart, “Other words in the sentence.” many of my literary selections. One The children explored and named the of the first linguistically enriched contrasts in grammatical patterning texts I introduced to my students Plural Patterns between formal and informal lan- was Flossie and the Fox by Patricia Formal Informal guage. Our plural chart (along with McKissack (1986). In this story, I have two dogs I have two dog charts for possessive and tense) Flossie speaks in the patterns of Taylor likes cats Taylor likes cat stayed up on our classroom walls for AAVE while the fox speaks in stan- All the boys . . . All the boy . . . easy reference during the school day. dard English patterns. This book How to show “more than one” quickly became a favorite among my ‘-s’ number words STUDENTS DISCOVER students, who chose it for every stu- other words POSSESSIVE PATTERNS dent-selected read-aloud. I was de- in the paragraph lighted when at the third reading, ACROSS ANGUAGE ARIETIES in the sentence L V without any prompting, children all For another lesson, I gave students a joined in choral call of one particular Figure 1. Discovering the rules chart comparing sentences with line: “Shucks! You aine no fox. You a for plural patterns across formal and informal possessive rabbit, all the time trying to fool me.” language varieties structures. Figure 2 provides an ex- Kids were engaged with this reading.

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are not “making allowances.” We pay Directions: Write three more Informal and three more Formal sentences that considerable attention to helping include possessive patterns. Then answer the questions below. children command the intricacies of Possessive Patterns choosing the language appropriate to Informal English Formal English the time, place, audience, and pur- Taylor cat is black. Taylor’s cat is black. pose. We are not implying that a The boy coat is torn. The boy’s coat is torn. child does not need to learn standard English. Indeed, in the broader Amer- A giraffe neck is long. A giraffe’s neck is long. ican society, all children need to 477 Did you see the teacher pen? Did you see the teacher’s pen? command Mainstream American En- ______glish, the language variety often re- Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom ______quired in formal settings. ______However, the issue of who learns What is the rule for using possessive patterns in Informal English? what language is deeply political, ______rooted in the social and cultural What is the rule for using possessive patterns in Formal English? structure of society (Wolfram & ______Schilling-Estes, 1998; Nieto, 2000). It can be a very damaging human Figure 2: Discovering the rules for possessive patterns across experience for an AAVE-speaking language varieties. child to learn Mainstream American English while the teacher dismisses After contrasting several different mal English for each character, AAVE as broken and error-filled. grammatical patterns and reading lit- while other students mixed it up as With contrastive analysis, we move erature reflecting differing language we had done in our collective story. to break the cycle. Exercising their varieties, it was time for students to I have seen tremendous growth in analytic eye, the teacher and all stu- implement their new understandings my students’ command of language. dents, Black, White, Asian, Native of language varieties in dialogues Prior to teaching codeswitching, my American, Hispanic, alike, engage in within their own writing. I initiated a students simply guessed what lan- critical thinking as they discover discussion about how different char- guage form was expected. One stu- and analyze the patterns of diverse acters use different speech patterns, dent explained, “It’s because you language varieties. In doing so, we and several children mentioned their don’t know how to say it and you’re take steps to unbind the “wide- favorite book, Flossie and the Fox. just wondering how you’re suppose spread, destructive myths about lan- We discussed how the different to say it.” My students are now be- guage variation” that underlie the voices of Flossie and the fox made coming clear about the contrasts dialect prejudice so rampant in soci- the book more interesting. between formal and informal lan- ety (Wolfram, 1999, p. 78). Following the discussion, the class guage. Students also understand Techniques of contrastive analysis created dialogue for a story we were that just as one tool doesn’t suit all also offer students tangible help in writing together about a teacher and jobs, neither does one language interpreting standardized test ques- a giant cockroach. When I asked style suit all communication tasks. tions. Students come to understand who would speak in what language Indeed, a well-stocked linguistic that when the test asks whether a style, the students decided the toolbox offers a diverse range of sentence is “correct” or “incorrect,” teacher would speak informal En- language forms to the mature it is asking for the patterns of the glish while the cockroach would use speaker and writer. mainstream written language. This formal speech. vantage helps students know to After completing several lines of RESPONDING TO FREQUENTLY choose the formal English patterns on test questions. Indeed, as Rick- our story, I asked the students to ASKED QUESTIONS think about the characters in their ford (1998) observes, “[T]eaching own stories and decide the speech Crucially, in our work on codeswitch- methods which do take vernacular style each would use. Some had ing between language varieties, we dialects into account in teaching the each character speak with formal are not saying, “anything goes.” We standard work better than those English, others chose to use infor- are not ignoring language, and we which do not” (p. 1). JUL-LA2.QXD 6/4/2004 5:06 PM Page 478

Codeswitching and knowledge of task is to produce formal English, English. If students find a sentence language varieties serve children we make editing into a game. After still in informal patterns, they during the writing process. As chil- students have completed the sub- change it to formal English, and dren construct story narrative, they stantive content of their reports, then highlight the sentence. Stu- choose a range of language styles children highlight their successes in dents are enthusiastic about noting to enhance character. When the matching the patterns of standard their grammar successes.

478 Children’s Books That Feature African American Dialects Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom

Clinton, Catherine. I, Too, Sing America: Three Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. Illus. T. Feelings. Centuries of African American Poetry. Illus. S. (Puffin, 1968). Alcorn. (Houghton, 1998). In this compilation of oral histories, slaves and Twenty-five poets are represented in 35 poems ex-slaves tell about their experiences. arranged chronologically from the 1700s to the present. Lester, Julius. Uncle Remus: The Complete Tales. Giovanni, Nikki. Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Illus. J. Pinkney. (Dial, 1999). Kate: Looking at the Harlem Rennaisance through Lester uses “modified contemporary southern black Poems. (Holt, 1996). English, a combination of standard English and A collection of poems is accompanied by a commentary black English” to bring these rollicking tales to a about each poet and poem. new generation of readers. Hamilton, Virginia. Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl. McKissack, Patricia. Flossie & the Fox. Illus R. Isadora. Illus. J. Ransome. (Scholastic, 2003). (Dial, 1986). This version of the trickster tale was collected in the A smooth talking, egg-stealing fox meets his match Gullah speech of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. when he encounters Flossie who is on an errand to Hamilton, Virginia. Her Stories: African American deliver a basket of eggs. Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales. Illus. L. & D. Parks, Van Dyke (adapter). Jump. Illus. B. Moser. Dillon. (Scholastic, 1995). (Harcourt, 1989). Nineteen stories focus on African American women. Parks tells more lively adventures of Brer Rabbit. Comments at the end of each tale explain the time Two other books, Jump On Over! and Jump Again period and the setting. by the adapter and illustrator feature other stories Hamilton, Virginia. The People Could Fly: American about Brer Rabbit. Black Folktales. Illus. L. & D. Dillon. (Knopf, 2000). Smalls, Irene. Don’t Say Ain’t. Illus. C. Bootman. Twenty-four tales are now accompanied by a CD (Charlesbridge, 2003). narrated by both the author and James Earl Jones. In the 1950s when a Harlem girl gets the chance to go Hamilton, Virginia. Tricksters: Animal Tales from to an integrated school, her teacher singles her out America, the West Indies, and Africa. Illus. B. Moser. for using “improper” speech. (Scholastic, 1997). Steptoe, John. Creativity. Illus. E. B. Lewis. (Clarion, 1997). Eleven tales show the migration of African culture to America via the West Indies. Charlie helps a new boy adjust to school and learns about how people can speak differently and share a hooks, bell. Happy To Be Nappy. Illus. C. Raschka. common ancestry. Also see Stevie by Steptoe. (Hyperion, 1999). hooks celebrates the joy and beauty of nappy hair. Also —Marilyn Carpenter see Be Boy Buzz by hooks.

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Further, students show an increased conscious command of standard English as well as the ability to codeswitch. David, an African American student, wrote “Spy Mouse and the Broken Globe,” a story in which Spy Mouse spoke informally (“I won’t do nothin’ to you”), while David’s author’s note 479 used uniquely formal English pat-

terns. By explaining that he knew Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom formal English but Spy Mouse did not, David was able to indepen- dently articulate the reasons for his language choices, an impressive ac- complishment for any student, let alone an urban third grader.

CONCLUSION Our schools have long served a dialectally diverse population. We re- ceived a wake-up call more than 20 proach, her black and white chil- Authors’ Note years ago when a northern school dren performed equally well on We thank the Language Arts referees and system was sued for educational year-end benchmarks. Indeed, in editors for their remarkably meticulous malpractice. In 1979, “Michigan math and science, African American and extremely helpful comments on earlier Legal services filed suit . . . on children outperformed European versions of this paper. We also offer grate- behalf of fifteen black, economi- American children. ful acknowledgment for permission to reprint portions of “Believing Is Seeing” cally deprived children residing in We believe that a pluralist response a low-income housing project” from the Journal of College Writing, to language varieties holds promise Vol. 5, No. 1, December 2002, pp. 5–21. (Smitherman, 1981, p. 133). Their for enhancing student performance case, Martin Luther King Junior El- and positively transforming the ementary School Children v. Ann language arts classroom. The rea- References Arbor School District Board, re- sons for student productivity are Adger, C. T., Christian, D., & Taylor, O. (Eds.). sulted in a decision for the plain- complex. Not simply, or even per- (1999). Making the connection: Language tiffs. The court found that the suit haps primarily, a matter of fostering and academic achievement among Afri- had merit since federal law directed children’s decoding and production can American students. Washington, DC: that “no child should be deprived of standard English, the crucial Center for Applied Linguistics. of equal educational opportunity point may be that when we bring Barth, R. (2002). The culture builder. Educa- because of the failure of an educa- the child’s language and culture tion Leadership, 59, 6–11. tional agency to take appropriate into the classroom, we invite in the Baugh, J. (2000). Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic action to overcome linguistic barri- whole child. Doing so contributes pride and racial prejudice. New York: ers” (Labov, 1995, p. 46). The issue signally to “the trellis of our Oxford University Press. still before us today is how to take profession—and the most crucial Baugh, J. (1999). Out of the mouths of “appropriate action to overcome element of school culture...—an slaves: African American language and linguistic barriers.” educational malpractice. Austin: Univer- ethos hospitable to the promotion sity of Texas Press. Rachel has taken appropriate action. of human learning” (Barth, 2002, Birch, B. (2001). Grammar standards: It’s all Her students have come alive. While p. 11). In this fashion, codeswitching in your attitude. Language Arts, 78, their engagement and excitement and contrastive analysis offer potent 535–542. with learning hold center stage, test tools of language and culture for CCCC. (1974). Students’ right to their own results are also revealing. After just transforming language arts practice language [Special issue]. College Compo- one year of using a contrastive ap- in America. sition and Communication, 25(3). JUL-LA2.QXD 6/4/2004 5:06 PM Page 480

Christenbury, L. (2000). Making the journey: McWhorter, J. (1998). The word on the street: Schierloh, J. M. (1991).Teaching standard Being and becoming a teacher of English Debunking the myth of pure standard En- English usage: A dialect-based approach. language arts (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: glish. New York: Plenum. Adult Learning, 2, 20–22. Boynton/Cook Heinemann. Nieto, S. (2000). Affirming diversity: The so- Smitherman, G. (1981). “What go round Cumming, D. (1997, January 9). A different ciopolitical context of multicultural edu- come round”: King in perspective. In G. approach to teaching language. The At- cation (3rd ed.). New York: Longman. Smitherman (Ed.), Talkin that talk: lanta Constitution, p. B1. Perry, T., & Delpit, L. (Eds.). (1998). The real Language, culture, and education in Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Ebonics debate: Power, language, and the African America (pp. 132–149). New Cultural conflict in the classroom. New education of African American children. York: Routledge. 480 York: New Press. Boston: Beacon. Steffensen, M., Reynolds, R., McClure, E., & Guthrie, L. (1982). Black English Ver- Delpit, L., & Dowdy, J. (2002). The skin that Pullum, G. (1999). African American Vernac-

Codeswitching Transforms the Dialectally Diverse Classroom nacular and reading comprehension: A we speak: Thoughts on language and cul- ular English is not standard English with close study of third, sixth, and ninth ture in the classroom. New York: The New mistakes. In R. S. Wheeler (Ed.), The graders. Journal of Reading Behavior, 3, Press. workings of language: From prescriptions 285–298. Ezarik, M. (2002). A time and a place [Elec- to perspectives (pp. 59–66). Westport, CT: tronic version]. District Administration: Praeger. Taylor, H. U. (1991). Standard English, Black English, and bidialectalism: A controversy. K–12 Education Leadership, Curriculum, Richardson, E. (2002). “To protect and New York: Peter Lang. Technology & Trends, May, 2002, 38–42. serve”: African American female litera- Retrieved July 24, 2002, from (http:// cies. College Composition and Communi- Wheeler, R. S. (2001). From home speech www.districtadministration.com/page. cation, 53, 675–704. to school speech: Vantages on reducing cfm?id=205. the achievement gap in inner city Rickford, J. R. (1996). The Oakland Ebonics Gilyard, K. (1991). Voices of the self: A study schools. The Virginia English Bulletin, decision: Commendable attack on the 51, 4–16. of language competence. Detroit: Wayne problem. Original text of the Op Ed article Wolfram, W. (1999). Repercussions from State Press. printed in the San Jose Mercury News, the Oakland Ebonics controversy—The Goodman, Y., & Goodman, D. (2000). “I December 26, 1996. Retrieved December critical role of dialect awareness pro- hate ‘postrophe s”: Issues of dialect and 17, 2002, from http://www.stanford.edu/ grams. In C. T. Adger, D. Christian, & reading proficiency. In J. Peyton, P. ~rickford/ebonics/SJMN-OpEd.html O. Taylor (Eds.), Making the connection: Griffin, W. Wolfram, & R. Fasold (Eds.), Rickford, J. R. (1997, January 22). Letter to Language in action: New studies of lan- Language and academic achievement Senator Specter, Chairman, U.S. Senate among African American students guage in society (pp. 408–435). Cresskill, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and NJ: Hampton. (pp. 61–80). McHenry, IL: Delta Human Services and Education. Retrieved Systems. Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Lan- December 17, 2002, from http://www. Wolfram, W., Adger, C. T., & Christian, D. guage, life, and work in communities and stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/ (Eds.). (1999). Dialects in schools and classrooms. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge SpecterLetter.html University Press. communities. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Rickford, J. R. (1998, March 25). Using the Wolfram, W., & Schilling-Estes, N. (1998). Joos, M. (1961). The five clocks: A linguistic ex- vernacular to teach the standard. Paper American English. Malden, MA: cursion into the five styles of English presented at the 1998 California State Blackwell. usage. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. University Long Beach [CSULB] Confer- Labov, W. (1995). Can reading failure be re- ence on Ebonics. Retrieved June 11, versed? A linguistic approach to the 2002, from http://www.stanford.edu/ question. In V. Gadsen & D. Wagner ~rickford/ papers/VernacularTo (Eds.), Literacy among African-American TeachStandard.html youth (pp. 39–68). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton. Rickford, J. R. (1999). Language diversity Author Biographies Labov, W., & Baker, B. (n.d.). Linguistic com- and academic achievement in the educa- ponent, African American literacy and tion of African American students: An Rebecca S. Wheeler is associate profes- culture project. Retrieved June 28, overview of the issues. In C. Adger, D. sor in the Department of English, Christo- 2002, from the William Labov Web site: Christian, & O. Taylor (Eds.), Making the pher Newport University. Rachel Swords http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/ connection: Language and academic teaches second and third grade at New- FinalReport.html achievement among African American some Park Elementary School in Newport McKissack, P. (1986). Flossie and the fox. students (pp. 1–30). Washington, DC: News, Virginia. New York: Dial. Center for Applied Linguistics.

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