Language, Power, And The Classroom Analysis

“Authority and American Usage” written by David Foster Wallace, poses an argument about the English language, and the different beliefs of its usage. This essay was written in defense of Bryan A. Garner’s, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. His argument in “Authority and American Usage” is the difference the between prescriptivism perception and the descriptivism perception (Linguistic terms that could easily be made into smaller, more understandable words for people like me). Since the beginning of time, language has evolved. From biblical times, to Shakespearean times, to present day; the English language has been continuously changing since it’s birth and has no intentions on stopping.

Exploration of modern usage dictionaries, the invisible linguistic war, and a grammar-obsessed adult’s troubled childhood flesh out this review by David Foster Wallace of The American Usage Dictionary. “Plus, of course, there are also innumerable sub- and subsub-dialects based on all sorts of things that have nothing to do with locale or ethnicity - Medical-School English, Twelve-Year-Old-Male-Whose-Worldview-Is-Deeply-Informed-By-South-Park-English - that are nearly incomprehensible to anyone who is not inside their very tight and specific Discourse Community (which of course is part of their function)”. The notion that sub-dialects which nearly every person possesses bar entry to groups makes one think about exclusivity. Exclusivity possesses a negative

Communicating with children and young adults who have communication differences should be approached with care and sensitivity. Some children may find it hard to make friends due to being anxious or have a lack of confidence in speaking out to others; they may have a speech disorder, stammer or a condition which creates communication a problem. How we communicate with children or young adults is by giving them time to think of their answer, let them reply in their own time, and not speak for them or answer the question for them.

In 1789, however, Noah Webster published a dictionary entitled, Dissertations on the English Language. Even though no major changes were made, he established an “American standard” and ensured that change would be made, but it would be gradual. By the nineteenth century, it was clear that revisions had to be made in the curriculum of prescriptive pedagogy to keep up with the ongoing changes in the world. The fact of the matter is that the vocabulary, pronunciation, and pragmatics of the English language are constantly changing, and a prescriptive pedagogy alone is not the most effective method of teaching grammar.

Navarrete, Lori, Nevada State College,Watson, M.R Silvana,, Old Dominion University, Council for Learning Disabilities, English Language Learners:The Impact of Language and SocioCultural Factors on Learning, (August

The South is probably the most linguistically diversified part of the nation. Blacks and whites from Atlanta to Charleston to Nashville speak a different form of standard English in a different version of the Southern accent. Part of this linguistic diversity is reflected in the way that the Southern aristocracy can “shift not only vocabulary and pronunciation, but even grammar, according to the audience” ((1)McDavid 219). This

English is a complex language because it is the mixture of Latin and some other languages. Standard English is what grammarians adopted a series of rules to make English correctly used. In Bill Bryson’s essay “Good English and Bad”, he used historical evidence to show readers how English rules are defined and changed by grammarians. While in the article “Why Good English is Good for You”, John Simon stresses how English users should use this language in a more proper way. Both of Bill Bryson and John Simon suggest people should follow the English rules, but they ignore English are used differently depends on who uses it, how people use it in distinct ways and when it is suitable for people to follow these English rules.

the English dialect capability of Arizona K-12 understudies whose essential home dialect is other than

One group we do neglect and aren't as sensitive as we need to be towards in the Native American culture. Within these different races there are non-native speakers. Many people don't know how to cater to these students needs. Before our reading in chapter 29, I wasn't sure exactly how I would need to differentiate if I were to have an ELL student in my class. I don't think that we realize how populated schools are with ELL students in this area. I definitely think that the least talked about group are those with different dialects. I think this is often looked at as a class issue, but should be adressed in school as professional versus casual language. I liked how in class we said that we would tell students that we talk this way in school, but you can still talk how you want at home. Until this power point I never realized how many words and pronunciations are affected by dialect. I always thought that dialect would be more prevalent in students that are from way different places in the country, but from the map I saw that there are multiple dialects

Buckingham(YEAR) did a study on the overall development of English language learners. Her findings where that the majority enjoyed the bilingual education system when younger, but still had some issues of grammar, article use, and punctuation which where similar among all participants. Comparing the different strategies that are used in the dual language

“There are many instances, however, where reality and what we are taught do not correspond as to actual “correctness”, the actual acceptability, of what we are told to avoid”, states Hall (14). The liberal view is amoral because there is no standard for anyone using language and grammar. There is an attitude of nonchalance when analyzing what the linguist believes, therefore what is socially acceptable will work, for the linguist. Hall also states, “It is easy, on the one hand, to see that those who talk or advertise in this way and offer to cure our errors in pronunciation or grammar are simply appealing to our sense of insecurity with regard to our own speech.” The idea that linguists believe correct pronunciation and grammar usage being enforced affects one’s insecurity is amoral. The criticism of grammar and speech should encourage a person to use the correct rules and pronunciation which can lead to building confident speakers and writers. If linguist continue to find correcting affecting insecurities, individuals will never understand why preserving language is so

As a child communication has always come easy to me. I was able to translate between different languages and switch from one language to another without a problem. While in school, I always felt that my strength was in language, oral exams/debates, and presentations. I was very loud, talkative, and I was never afraid to stand up to anyone. But things started to change as I grew older. When we moved to New Jersey, I encountered many bullies, children and parents, who made fun of me for the things I liked or the way I spoke and acted. I decided that it was better to stay quiet in order to protect myself from being hurt even more.

Nonstandard dialect in most countries like America is known to be used by low or non-prestige groups that have many grammatical errors and that are considered to be uneducated. This conclusion was acquired because of the negative attention that this kind of dialect draws. Educated people tend to judge the speaker of such a dialect as socially inferior, and non-educated. People in general usually use the terms "bad", “improper” or "incorrect" to describe Non-standard English. Today I’m going to show you how a Kuwaiti non-standard dialect reverses these assumptions! People all around the world no matter who always want to seem sophisticated around others, in this essay I will be talking about how Kuwaitis show this eagerness or

The English language has been influenced eminently by numerous worldwide associations. A few of the groups affiliated with these associations were the Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and the Celts. Due to the groups' influences, changes began to emerge within internal, external, and typological ways of communication. These alterations technically led to the public acknowledgment of dialects. Dialects are regional interpretations of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciations from other regional varieties that assist in establishing one full language (English). However, dialects can be a bit of a hassle when communicating, especially if one is communicating with someone of a different region. Imagine a standard classroom of twenty-four students, many of whom are from different regions; do their dialects affect the way they learn and/or communicate in the classroom? Is it possible that their dialects could determine their rank in popularity? Today, schools require students to learns “standard” American English (StE) dialect, with the ideas that it is the only proper way to speak and write. However, in doing this, teachers overlook the language skills students have already contracted during their growth as humans.

There is no doubt that grammar is an essential role in language teaching and learning, after studying the grammar people can master a language accurately. language is a ruled-controlled behavior. (Rutherford, 1988)