Wow. This piece really hit home for me.
Firstly, because I was in a pretty widely criticized
"bad" school district from kindergarten until my senior year of high
school.
Secondly, because I attend an urban college that is
teeming with people of different backgrounds who shamelessly express themselves
in the languages they are comfortable using, and rightfully so.
And lastly, because the idea of correcting
self-expressive language rubs me the wrong way…yet I still have a hypocritical,
annoying habit of correcting people when they're not conventionally correct in
terms of their language or writing.
Some of the most beautiful
novels, poems, lyrics and stories were conceived through self-expression, and
innovative language. Some of the most raw, heart-wrenching, relatable pieces of
writing or spoken language are those that come from the heart, from a
comfortable and confident place… and yet we use red pens to mark up papers and
find it strangely annoying to hear someone say “ax” instead of “ask”, mispronounce
a word, or use jargon or slang to express themselves. Why? Because the
language of success in America isn’t the one we are most comfortable using, it
is the proper, conventional, correct use of the English language.
We tell kids that they won’t be able to pass state tests, or get into college,
or find a good job if they cannot speak the language of power in all of its
politically correct, painfully dull, and conventional glory. As much as I’d
like to bash the idea of using proper English, I cannot. I’m using
it right now, and it has been drilled into our heads from the moment we entered
a classroom. I do not disagree with the notion that language = success, but as
educators, we need to stop discouraging our students from using “home language”
because it is fundamental to their self expression, and the growth of their
language.
Linda Christensen is one of
the most well-known and renowned English educators in America, and yet she even
admits to using words that aren’t seemingly “correct” in the eyes of the proper
American like “chimbly” instead of “chimney”.
I have lived through this all
of my life. In every single one of my classes since I was four years old,
students were getting called out and embarrassed over the way they spoke, the
words they used, their pronunciation, annunciation…you name it. As a future ELA
educator, I’m going to have students who expect me to do the same to them, and
I will have to. Linda Christensen says that English educators have become so
accustomed to looking for errors, that they fail to acknowledge if a student is
doing something right.
Although the language of
success is necessary, educators have to nurture every single student’s desire
express themselves the way they feel the most comfortable. We need to teach
them the proper way to speak, write, communicate, etc. because they will
inevitably be judged, and we want the future judgments made about our students
to be good ones. We need to properly equip them with knowledge of the language
of success so that they can access it when they need it, like in job or college
interviews, while networking, and in professional settings when proper
English is expected.
I like Christensen’s notion
of “The Teacher as a Scientist”. She uses Mina Shaughnessy’s Errors and Expectations as an example to
elaborate on how educators need to examine their student’s writing, looking for
patterns and explanations so that you can determine exactly what errors the
student is making, why, and figure out how help the student acknowledge and
correct these errors. You cannot simply mark up a paper and expect the student
to take anything away from a bunch of red ink on their work. It’s one thing if
a student isn’t putting any effort into their work, which results in multiple
errors, and it’s another thing if a student’s paper is riddled with mistakes
they don’t know they are making. For instance, students who have learned, or
are learning English as a second language. They may be incorporating bits and
pieces of their home language, or the rules applied to their home language in
their English writing and speaking. It is up to the educator to identify each
individual’s problem, speak to the student, and see if they can correct it on
his or her own. If not, then the teacher can step in for further assistance.
Christensen also places
emphasis on how important it is for students to revise their own work and hold
them accountable for their own errors. She speaks about one of her student’s,
LaJuane, who handed in a paper full of errors, but was written with a lot of
passion and enthusiasm. It’s hard to just shoot someone down over errors,
especially when it’s evident that they enjoyed writing it so much. So what she
did was tackle one issue at a time, despite the fact that he had numerous
issues with capitalization, spelling, apostrophe’s and basic sentence
structure. She began with capitalization because it was the easiest to solve,
after showing him a few examples, she held him accountable for correcting the
rest of the capitalization errors in his writing, then moved on to the next
issue. I like this idea because although it does sound time-consuming, you’re
not overwhelming a student with a marked up paper that could possibly be
destroying their self-esteem and any enjoyment they might’ve had during the
writing process.
In my future classroom, I
plan on letting my students do free-writing activities and self-expressive
projects where they are free to use the language they are most comfortable
with. “Translanguaging” will be a fundamental feature in my classroom, as well
as teaching them the language of power and success we call “proper English”. I
hope that my future students will be able to seamlessly toggle between
conventional English and the language they’re most familiar with whenever need
be. Although we live in a world where “proper English” is expected, it simply isn’t
realistic. There are so many different cultures in America and so many
different people immigrating here that we cannot expect people to be “proper”
all the time. Students may not be able to use conventional English with their
families, so it’s not ok to discourage students and continuously correct their
way of speaking because it can potentially offend their entire lifestyle,
family, or culture.
For me, the ideal English classroom
can teach the language of success to produce successful individuals, yet still
encourage and cherish the unique use of language of every student, every
culture, every background and way of life.