NCTE 2016

As a teacher of color, it has always been a priority for me that my fellow students of color feel that they have a place in my classroom because I know what it feels like to be the only one, sometimes singled-out or ignored entirely. However, it did not occur to me that language and the very nature of language in an English classroom was also creating a barrier for students of color to feel as if this space was for them as well. In an eye-opening course, I was asked to confront my own personal prejudices with language as I too was one of the many educators who did not want to validate any other English in the classroom other than Standard English. Like many educators, I believed that Standard English was the language of success, and that I would do a disservice to my students by allowing them to write in their own English, be it African American Language, Spanglish, or Appalachian English. At the beginning of the course, I did not believe that students could be successful when using their home languages in the classroom.

But after extensive studying and diving deep into the research, it became clear that students whose languages were not validated in the classroom felt insecure and shameful about themselves and their home cultures. As an educator, that must never be our intention to make a student feel unworthy. Validating a student's use of a different English is not enough when the teacher dedicates their time to correcting their English as it is harmful to that student's learning and self-esteem. The concept of Code-Switching, though widely embraced by many educators in the past, is outdated and continues to perpetuate the legacy of slavery by reinforcing the power dynamics in race and language. Contrastive Analysis, the concept of comparing and contrasting sentence structure and grammatical features in AAL and Standard English, provides the opportunity for students to understand the specific features in both languages, while validating the former and recognizing it as a language rather than slang or "improper" English.

My professor, Dr. April Baker-Bell, a few other classmates and I decided to submit a proposal to the 2016 Annual Convention for the National Conference of Teachers of English (NCTE) to talk about the research and positive effects in utilizing African American Language in the classroom. Our presentation focused on how to combat linguistic prejudice in our classrooms by addressing our own prejudices.

My feature of the presentation was a classroom demonstration where I asked for multiple volunteers for a "Stand on the Line" Activity. I read aloud various statements about language and power and the volunteers would either stand on the line if they agreed, stepped further away from the line if they disagreed, or stood in place if they were neutral or unsure. I would then ask follow-up questions and leave time for volunteers to express their opinions. As a fan of dialogic tools, I thought it was necessary to host a discussion on the opinions, questions, fears, or uncertainties that other educators may have when it comes to dismantling the hierarchy of language.

Below is a copy of my handout in the activity with the various statements as I asked my volunteers to respond to.