Children As Language Detectives

LA-JAN2.QXD 11/22/2002 2:23 PM Page 206 “On the Lookout for Language”: Children as Language Detectives 206 A teacher researcher describes how she invited her students On the Lookout for Language to be detectives on the lookout for language and Mary Beth Monahan to take a critical perspective on how it varies with each speaker, purpose, and context. “I sometimes use words or phrases from young adult novels that we read audiotaping classroom conversa- cartoons, books, TV, and other people in throughout the year. To conduct our tions, interviewing peers and par- my conversations because when I do it small-scale ethnographies of lan- ents, and writing field notes, grabs the attention of my friends. They’d guage, we used a variety of qualita- observations, and literary responses go ‘oh yea’ or ‘I know that.’” (Lauren) tive research methods, such as in our detective logs. “Personally, I think that people use other people’s voices or quotes to put themselves on a similar status of that person. When Apollo 13 was showing, I noticed that a lot of people were saying, ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ In my opinion, the people were saying that to elevate their rank to the actor’s.” (Derek) “Everyday people use language to get power by interjecting in a conversation and then talking for long periods of time. People also use sarcasm to gain power. Also, you have to use other people’s words and talk about ‘in things.’” (Mia) These are just a few entries from sixth graders’ language-detective logs. As a class, we were always on the lookout for language—exploring how and why we use language in certain situations and with particu- lar people, investigating how language is used to confer or deny power, and considering the many voices that we adopt as speakers and writers. In the spirit of Heath (1983), we studied “ways with words” by documenting, discussing, and reflecting on language use in school, at home, and within the Language Arts, Vol. 80 No. 3, January 2003 LA-JAN2.QXD 11/22/2002 2:23 PM Page 207 By instructing sixth graders to be rural, agrarian community has heteroglossia—that I wanted stu- on the lookout for language, and become more diverse, it is nonethe- dents to explore and understand. particularly for how it varies with less predominantly white and upper The poem is delivered in the voice each speaker, purpose, and context, middle class. of 14-year-old Kate Bloomfield, a I hoped to promote a richer and Given this homogeneity, it was im- character from Little’s other novels. more robust view of language diver- portant for me to raise students’ Young Kate declares: “Today I will sity. In my mind, it was vitally im- awareness that every “utterance is not live up to my potential. / Today portant to spotlight language an embodiment of speech diver- I will not relate well with my peer varieties, not simply as colorful al- sity” (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 271). By group” (p. 6). When discussing 207 ternatives to “standard English” and urging sixth graders to study their these lines, students and I first con- thus as linguistic novelties, but as own behaviors as language users, I sidered why the poem made us On the Lookout for Language basic phenomena of language itself. hoped that they would come to un- laugh and what was so funny about As Bakhtin (1981) suggests, lan- derstand how local literacies ap- Kate’s expressions. We discovered guage is heteroglossic, or composed plied to them and not simply to that Kate’s declaration was humor- of many voices. Moreover, the nu- “others” from different social ous mostly because she took adult merous voices or literacies within a classes, races, and ethnicities. And ways with words and used them as single utterance is a simple fact of much like Freire and Macedo tools to fashion her own rebellion. language (Bakhtin, 1981). To this (1987), I did not want students to With this example, I highlighted the extent, “local literacies,” or lan- think of local literacies in terms of guage varieties, are not merely “linguistic ghettos.” Such a view is I hoped that they exotic specialty items for the edu- not only grossly inaccurate and cated language consumer; they are patently offensive; it also balka- would come to among the many linguistic re- nizes language in ways that distort, understand how local sources available to all our students. disfigure, and ultimately compro- literacies applied to APPRECIATING LANGUAGE mise all students’ voices. DIVERSITY: BEING “ON THE Thus, as language ethnographers, them and not simply these sixth graders and I investi- LOOKOUT FOR LANGUAGE” to “others” from gated the “primordial properties” of Hoping to enlarge sixth graders’ language and, in so doing, exam- different social understanding of language diver- ined instances—both within and classes, races, and sity, I created an instructional beyond the classroom—where lan- strand in my curriculum called “On guage was heteroglossic, elastic, and ethnicities. the Lookout for Language.” Al- historically, politically, and socially though I continued to recruit stu- constructed, as well as ideologically fact that Kate, a writer close to my dents as language detectives, I am charged (Bakhtin, 1981). What fol- students’ own age, was actually an reporting on only our work from lows is an account of the instruc- ingenious tactician when selecting the first year, 1995–1996, in this tional activities I created for the her words for her own subversive article. Teaching at Rockford Upper purpose of raising sixth graders’ ends. She poached adult language Elementary School in central New critical language awareness and, in and inhabited those voices that typ- Jersey (names have been changed turn, their appreciation of language ically encroached upon her (Dia- throughout to protect student diversity as a fact of language (Fair- mondstone, 1999). anonymity), I worked with a clough, 1989, 1992). heterogeneously grouped class This mini-lesson showed sixth of 25 students. The social, cultural, graders that language can be elas- Language as Elastic and and racial composition of my tic, supple, and even responsive to Heteroglossic: A Visit class varied from year to year, but their touch (Bakhtin, 1981; Hymes, with Kate Bloomfield in 1995–1996 it reflected the dis- 1973). Kate, after all, manipulated trict’s student population: 76 To begin our language study, I pre- the seemingly fixed speech codes percent White, 5 percent African sented Jean Little’s (1990) poem of adults to achieve humor and American, 18 percent Asian/ Pa- “Today” because it vividly and hu- creative resistance. Given Kate’s cific Islander, and 1 percent His- morously illustrates the two proper- example, I encouraged students to panic students. Although this once ties of language—elasticity and imagine how they too could pinch, LA-JAN2.QXD 11/22/2002 2:23 PM Page 208 press, and pull language according PTA’s upcoming book fair scheduled Bloomfield poem, I used the meta- to their own intentions. Kate for early November. The flyer stated phor of “ventriloquism” to describe Bloomfield’s poem also demon- the specific dates, times, and loca- how the flyer’s authors spoke strated a related property of lan- tions for the fair. What outraged the through children—almost like guage—heteroglossia. I capitalized student, however, were the following puppets—to reach the audience. We on this poem to show students how envisioned parents with student we, as speakers and writers, are We were on the puppets on their laps doing the talk- ventriloquists to the extent that we ing for them in the voices of fourth, 208 take on others’ words, expressions, lookout for how we fifth, and sixth graders. Then we ex- and language forms all of the time perform as plored whether or not the authors’ On the Lookout for Language (Bakhtin, 1981). I pointed out how voice projections actually achieved even the phrase “live up to your ventriloquists by the intended effect. Given that stu- potential” carries the voices of taking words out of dents were irritated by being par- Kate’s parents, teachers, older sib- roted in this way, we concluded that lings, and Kate herself. other peoples’ mouths the authors’ plan had actually back- fired, at least with us. To fully convey this idea, I created a and using them for scenario of Kate performing as a our own purposes. Still, we had to admit that not all ventriloquist and asked students to students would have the same reac- imagine a teacher or parent sitting phrases that the flyer’s authors had tion, and to that extent, the authors upon Kate’s lap as a puppet, used to frame their message: “Phic- might have swayed other sixth, mouthing the phrases “live up to my tion is phat! Books are the Bomb! fifth, and fourth graders to think potential” and “relate well with my Reading Rules!” This student was so that “reading rules.” But as our cri- peer group.” We dramatized teacher irked that he declared, “What is this tique continued, students noted how talk and playfully parodied that world coming to when teachers use the authors hadn’t quite mastered speech style. We brainstormed other these words!” Capitalizing on my the voices of children. In writing adult phrases and had fun mocking student’s passion, I used the flyer to “books are the bomb,” the authors’ the various authority figures in our springboard into an On the Lookout statement had traces of adult voices lives. We also asked ourselves if we for Language session by asking, since they had tidied up the actual had ever used those same phrases “Who wrote this flyer? What were phrase—“da bomb.” I pointed out (e.g., “accept responsibility” and “be they trying to accomplish? And why how in that one phrase there were appropriate”) either jokingly or seri- did they use these expressions?” We three voices—those of parents sani- ously.

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