Payne's Chapter 2

Payne's chapter two really reminded me of the research I conducted this summer for a paper I wrote for a dialects class with Dr. Shields. I conducted a case study focusing on English teachers in the area to find out exactly how they were addressing language variations in the classroom. I only focused on teachers that had daily interaction with nonstandard speakers of American English. Teaching bidialectalism, or the ability to speak two dialects, is the best way to help students gain a useful understanding of standard American English. This chapter really emphasized a lot of what I found in my research and case study; mainly that students in poverty, who are often learning English as a second dialect (ESD), do not have enough contact with standard speakers. In order for students living in poverty to learn a formal register of English, they need to have relationships and contact with people speaking that register.

The Cinderella story reminded me of something else I learned in my research from the summer. Linguistic studies prove that "dialect texts" are excellent ways to help students acquire the standard dialect. But these dialect texts are no where to be found in schools today. Of the six teachers I interviewed, only one had heard of these dialect texts. But, they are out there and they work! The one I found was called "Shirley and the Valentine Card" and it was written in 6 different versions, one in the standard and the others in different dialects of American English. The idea is that students can gain an understanding of the standard dialect if they are exposed to the standard as well as a text written in their native dialect. Contrastive analysis between the two texts help to break down structural barriers that would otherwise be extremely difficult to understand. Back to the Cinderella story, it proves that it is crucial for teachers to understand the different discourse patterns, like the patterns for storytelling, and how they are associated with different registers of speech, and that discourse patterns are associated with the way the brain stores memory. The article points out that teachers should incorporate different patterns for storytelling in the classroom and I completely agree.

The last sentence of the article states, "Students should be told how much the formal register affects their ability to get a well-paying job." Of the teachers I interviewed this summer, only two of the six admitted to discussing the social implications of language variations in the classroom. This really needs to change! Teachers need to share this information with their students, especially those students living in poverty and speaking ESD, so that they may advance socially without abandoning the language of their home. Also, schools, especially those in urban areas, need to purchase dialect texts for the classroom.