Language Diversity, School Learning, and Closing Achievement Gaps A Workshop Summary (2010) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 Language Differences
5 Language Differences
Pages 69-82
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 69... ...
DIALECTS AND NONSTANDARD ENGLISH William Labov and Anne Charity Hudley explored differences in language and achievement associated with language dialect (or vernacu lar)
|
From page 70... ...
The California Board of Education recently sponsored a consensus panel to determine the structural domains that differ most between stan dard English and the African American dialect with the goal of informing publishers about how aspects of African American vernacular English affect reading achievement (summarized in Labov and Hudley, 2009)
|
From page 71... ...
In Labov's view, these results show the importance of discovering which grammatical differences have cognitive effects and which do not so that effective teaching strategies can be developed, preferably when children are first learning to read. From the earliest stages of inquiry into the effect of dialect differences, Labov said, there has been general agreement that in reading instruction, it is essential to distinguish mistakes in reading that affect comprehen sion, true reading errors, from differences in pronunciation that do not affect comprehension, such as reading "pen" as "pin." The latter mistakes tend to be common in African American vernacular and other Southern dialects.
|
From page 72... ...
To remedy the effects of dialect on achievement, Hudley proposed greater sharing of information between academic researchers and K12 educators so that educators can learn to correctly identify systemic pat terns of home languages and dialects in their students, distinguish between speech disorders and nonstandard dialects, and make the edu cational system more accessible by teaching conventions while acknowl edging the legitimacy of home languages and dialects. In this effort, a broad network of educators would need to be reached, especially in com munity colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and institu tions that serve primarily Spanishspeaking students to communicate what is known about linguistics in an accessible manner to educators, including administrators, reading specialists, curriculum and instruction developers and supervisors, and speech pathologists.
|
From page 73... ...
Cognitively oriented theorists see language development as a change in mental state in which the knowledge of grammatical rules develops in a mostly linear fashion, and children come to use that knowledge with increasing com plexity and control. Cognitively oriented researchers study differences in children's usage and understanding of linguistic structure at different stages of language development, and how children cognitively process language, with a focus on the kinds of grammatical errors made at par ticular points in language acquisition.
|
From page 74... ...
. Dichotomies pertaining to monolingual speakers include standard versus nonstandard English; standard English versus dialects; and elaborated code (complex, formal language used in academic conversation)
|
From page 75... ...
Yet this information is needed to guide instruction, she said -- and it is especially urgent to have for children starting at ages 4 or 5, when they first begin school -- and to support early intervention. Focusing on her own research relating to the African American dialect as an example, Green said a more thorough modeling of the structural features of African American English is needed to articulate how the fea tures develop over time and how these developmental progressions relate to those found in "mainstream" English.
|
From page 76... ...
Exactly how these emerging African American dialect patterns relate to perfor mance on mainstream language assessments is not yet clear, but the nar ratives are one way, Green suggested, to gain insight into what African American dialect speakers know about how to represent meanings and which meanings are represented at different points in their language development. Results from Green's research indicate that children acquire the lan guage variations exhibited in their communities: both the dialect and mainstream English forms are acquired to different degrees depending upon their exposure to the language patterns of different communities, and the features of the dialect overlap with mainstream English.
|
From page 77... ...
to describe this movement between standard and dialect English. Green argued that the appearance of variable shifting and code shift ing in children's language supports the notion that regularized African American Englishlanguage patterns are part of a linguistic system that is on a continuum with standard English patterns: they are not two dichoto mous language varieties.
|
From page 78... ...
However, a message needs to be sent that language proficiency differs from literacy proficiency. Currently, literacy measures are used for identifying Englishlanguage learners for language and learning services, including special education, thereby underestimating the orallanguage abilities students possess for learn ing, further perpetuating achievement gaps.
|
From page 79... ...
The notion of academic registers could be a meaningful framework for expanding students' use of language in ways that go beyond concern with teaching and assessing lists of isolated grammatical forms that do not indicate knowledge of actual uses and control of the register in the context of academic learning. Knowing about and using children's first languages could be helpful to teachers in this regard.
|
From page 80... ...
Consistent with Valdés' comments, several par ticipants suggested the need to frame questions about the role of language in academic achievement and achievement gaps in a larger framework and to examine the interaction of language in relation to other factors that also affect achievement: poverty, ideology, discrimination, assessment problems, and so on. Remedies for achievement gaps may differ depend ing on how language relates to these other factors.
|
From page 81... ...
After they learn to read, the degree to which they read becomes a very important input variable for learning new and rare vocabulary and gram matical forms. This is true for children learning a first or second language, for children learning two languages simultaneously, and for vernacular: African American children learn the African American dialect or standard English depending on what they're exposed to.
|
From page 82... ...
As long as stu dents with a wide range of orallanguage skills are all deemed to be per petual language learners, "closeted away" with other Englishlanguage learners even though conversationally and in many other ways they can use English, an achievement gap will persist caused at least in part by children's lack of opportunity to learn academic content. Jeff MacSwan noted that two ideas discussed during the workshop permeate languageminority education and special education.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.