GRDG526: Language, Literacy, and Diversity in American Education

1
GRDG526 Language, Literacy, and Diversity in
American Education

• Using Linguistic Analysis
• Dr. Gloria E. Jacobs

2
Sharing
3
Agenda

• Sounding Black Podcast
• Group Discussion
• Break
• Minilecture IPA Instruction
• Next Week

4
Podcast

• Studio 360 Sarah Jones on Sounding Black

5
Small Group Discussion

• This week, you choose your groups!

6
Break 615 630
7
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Accents, dialects, languages all linguistic
  variation
• Levels of variation
• Regional Association (regional dialects)
• Pronunciation (accent)
• Vocabulary
• Social Groups (social dialects)
• Grammar

8
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• The greater the social distance, the greater the
  variation in language.
• Most apparent in how verbs are used
• Those with less social power expected to
  know/understand language of those of higher
  social power, but not vice versa.

9
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Rather Than These
• Dialect
• Nonstandard English

• Use These Terms
• Language variation or linguistic variation
• Vernacular dialect

10
Language, Learning, and Thinking

• No evidence that linguistic variation interferes
  with cognitive development or reflects logical
  thinking (or lack thereof).

11
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Standard English A composite of socially
  preferred dialects from various parts of the US
  and other English speaking countries (Adger,
  Wolfram, Christian, 2007, p. 15).
• Consistent with critical race theory that
  recognizes the value of the African American
  experience and how the white experience has been
  historically privileged.
• Two views Deficit versus Difference
• Consistent with McDermott Varenne (1997)
  Culture as Disability perspective.

12
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Whats a teacher to do?
• Develop knowledge and respect for integrity of
  linguistic varieties (Adger, 2007, p. 26).
• Make dialect study part of your professional
  development
• Teach students to appreciate their linguistic
  heritage by teaching them how to do dialect study

13
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Conducting dialect study
• Involve your students
• Listen closely and nonjudgmentally to your speech
  and that of your students
• Learn the linguistic patterns of the community I
  which you teach
• Listen for grammatical patterns
• Listen for pronunciation patterns
• Vowel differences tend to mark region
• Consonant differences tend to mark social class

14
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Is someone who speaks in the vernacular
• uneducated
• Or
• not socialized into academic or standard Englishes

15
Minilecture Linguistic Variation

• Implications for Literacy Instruction
• miscue analysis/reading instruction
• spelling development
• grammar instruction
• writing assessment
• We should of gone to are grandmother house.

16
Minilecture - IPA

• Sound/letter correspondence
• Vowels and consonants
• Terms
• Phoneme smallest unit of sound that carries
  meaning.
• Dipthongs Two sounds within one phoneme (bike)
• Digraphs Two letters to represent one phoneme
  (that)
• Blends Two letters/two phonemes that are
  smoothed together (bread/bleed)

17
Practicing the IPA

• Handout

18
Practicing for the Oral Language Analysis

• With a partner, analyze your speech
• Read the first paragraph of Comma Gets a Cure
  and with a partner, transcribe a few sentences
  using IPA.
• Use Adger et al (2007) and Freeman Freeman
  (2004) to help you think about your
• Grammar patterns
• Vocabulary choices
• In casual conversation with close friends, how
  standard do you think your speech is?
• In classroom or other professional settings, how
  does your speech change?

19
Student Analysis

• Page 13 of syllabus
• Data to be collected
• Analysis
• Implications

20
Next Week

• Meet in Library 100
• Have some idea of what you would like to do your
  literature review on
• Sutton (2004) on spoken word performance
• Lee (2009) on cultural modeling
• Compton-Lilly Chapter 10 on popular culture to
  support literacy development
• Watch Brave New Voices performances
• Student Analysis paper due

21
Examples of Spoken Word

• Elliot of RCSD to NCTE
• Hebrew Mamita
• Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make"