Dialects in Schools and Communities

Carolyn Temple Adger,Walt Wolfram,Donna Christian

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781135554873
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

This book describes dialect differences in American English and their impact on education and everyday life. It explores some of the major issues that confront educational practitioners and suggests what practitioners can do to recognize students' language abilities, support their language development, and expand their knowledge about dialects. Topics addressed include:
*popular concerns about the nature of language variation;
*characteristic structures of different dialects;
*various interactive patterns characteristic of social groups;
*the school impacts of dialect differences in speaking, writing, and reading, including questions about teaching Standard English; and
*the value of dialect education in schools to enable students to understand dialects as natural and normal language phenomena. Changes in the Second Edition: In this edition the authors reconsider and expand their discussion of many of the issues addressed in the first edition and in other of their earlier works, taking into account especially the research on dialects and publications for audiences beyond linguistics that have appeared since the first edition. This edition is offered as an updated report on the state of language variation and education in the United States. Dialects in Schools and Communities is rooted in questions that have arisen in workshops, surveys, classes, discussion groups, and conversations with practitioners and teacher educators. It is thus intended to address important needs in a range of educational and related service fields. As an overview of current empirical research, it synthesizes current understandings and provides key references—in this sense it is a kind of translation and interpretation in which the authors' goal is to bring together the practical concerns of educators and the vantage point of sociolinguistics. No background in linguistics or sociolinguistics is assumed on the part of the reader. This volume is intended for teacher interns and practicing teachers in elementary and secondary schools; early childhood specialists; specialists in reading and writing; speech/language pathologists; special education teachers; and students in various language specialties.

1

Language Variation in America

Issues and Definitions

Every language differs to some degree from place to place and from group to group. We use the term language variation to refer to the fact that a language is not uniform. Instead, it varies according to social characteristics of groups of people, such as their cultural background, geographical location, social class, gender, or age. Language variation may also refer to differences in the way that language is used in different settings, such as in the home, the community, and the school, and on different occasions, such as telling a friend about a trip or planning a trip with a travel agent.

People who share important cultural, social, and regional characteristics typically speak similarly, and people who differ in such characteristics usually differ in language or dialect as well. The term dialect is generally used to refer to a variety of a language associated with a regionally or socially defined group of people. This definition of dialect is not a rigorous one, but it carries an important implication. Technically (as linguists use the term), the relative status of a dialect with respect to other dialects (its social standing) is only a matter of language difference. Linguistically, no dialect is more valuable, interesting, or worthy of study than another. The term dialect used this way is neutral—no evaluation is implied, either positive or negative.

Consider this example of a dialect difference: The patterns or rules of some dialects require that anymore be used only in negative sentences (those with not or some other negative), such as I don’t go there anymore, or in questions such as Do you go there anymore? In other dialects, anymore can occur in affirmative sentences as well as negative, such as Houses in this neighborhood are expensive anymore. This dialect difference usually corresponds to regional characteristics: All speakers of English use the structure in negative contexts; those who also use it in affirmative (called positive anymore) are generally located in midland areas, running through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and westward. The important point is that neither use of anymore is linguistically right or wrong. They are merely different: The pattern of some dialects includes a restriction on anymore that others do not have. According to the technical meaning of dialect, one pattern is not better than another.

A person cannot speak a language without speaking a dialect of that language. Everyone is part of some group that can be distinguished from other groups in part by how group members talk. If a person speaks the English language, that person necessarily speaks some dialect of the English language.

This chapter raises some basic issues for education and society that grow out of the contrast between differing perspectives on dialect: Research shows that dialects are all complete linguistic systems and thus have structural integrity, but social evaluation gives some dialects higher status than others. That is, views of the relative merit of a language variety are based on social, not linguistic, grounds.

Popular Meanings of Dialect

The term dialect is often used in ways that contrast with the neutral technical meaning just presented. A common use of the term carries a negative connotation. Dialect is sometimes used to refer to a social or geographical variety of English that is not the preferred—or standard—one. For example, native Midwesterners hearing the speech of an African American from the deep South or a European American from rural Appalachia might say that that person speaks a dialect (and believe that they themselves do not). Such use of the term dialect assumes that only certain groups of people speak a dialect. These assumptions are unwarranted, however, because everyone speaks some variety—or dialect—of their language. Some dialects may be more noticeable than others because of the social and political positions of different groups and the salience of their distinguishing linguistic traits, but this does not mean that only some people use dialects.

Dialect is also sometimes used popularly as a synonym for language. For example, people sometimes refer to the languages of Africa as African dialects or Native American languages as American Indian dialects. In reality, many separate languages are spoken by Africans and Native Americans, as well as by Europeans and Asians. Equating dialect with language may occur in situations where the languages are far removed from the life of the observer.

Language specialists avoid the term dialect because of the different possible interpretations it can have and because of the negative sense it may carry. Instead, they use the terms language variety, language difference, language variation, and linguistic diversity to avoid the negative connotations sometimes associated with dialect.

The question of terminology becomes especially difficult when we want to refer to the speech of people who do not speak a standard variety. The most common labels have been nonstandard dialect, nonmainstream dialect, and vernacular dialect. Although these terms can be used synonymously and all are in common use, we use the designation vernacular dialect here. We prefer that term because it highlights the dimension of the indigenous communities associated with language varieties that differ from the standard. This term also seems more neutral than the term nonstandard and leads to somewhat less confusion than the label nonmainstream, which has been used to refer to a range of groups considered outside of mainstream society for one reason or another.

Accent and Dialect

When it comes to language differences, the term accent is popularly used to refer to how people pronounce words. So, if a person pronounces car without the final r, as in “cah,” or creek something like “crick,” these pronunciations might be considered characteristic of a particular accent. References to accent may include differences other than pronunciation, but the focus is usually on pronunciation.

Situations in which someone might use the term accent can provide a basis for comparing what is commonly meant by accent with what may be meant by dialect.

1. A French waiter asks some diners what they would like to order. His question is English, but the pronunciation sounds as if he were using French rather than English sounds. The patron might remark, “That waiter has a very heavy accent.”

2. Someone who grew up in northeastern New England visits Chicago. A native Chicagoan might observe, “You can tell where she’s from the minute she opens her mouth—she really has a strong New England accent.”

3. Someone originally from Chicago visits northeastern New England. A New Englander might remark, “That person must be from Chicago. She says some words with a real accent.”

The restaurant situation involves someone who most likely learned English as a second language and whose speech still shows influence from the native language. This is the classic foreign accent that might be more specifically labeled as a French accent, a Swedish accent, and so forth. The other two situations contain references to variation within a single language. Here the meaning of accent is closer to the technical meaning of dialect. Of course, accent is more restricted because it refers primarily to pronunciation, and there are differences other than pronunciation among dialects. The term accent often carries some negative connotations similar to those for the popular use of dialect, although they are typically less severe. Despite the fact that each variety of English includes its own pronunciation pattern, it is often assumed that only other people have accents. Thus, the native Chicagoan meeting someone from New England may think that it is only the New Englander who speaks with an accent, whereas the native New Englander may think that only the Chicagoan speaks with an accent. Of course, both of them have an accent, just as everyone speaks a dialect. Some accents (and dialects) are the subject of wider comment than others, including, for example, what people call a Southern accent, a Boston accent, a New York accent, and a British accent, all of which have stereotyped features that others recognize quite readily. Although negative connotations are sometimes associated with having an accent, there can be positive evaluations as well. For instance, many North Americans hold a British accent in high regard.

Levels of Language Differences

Pronunciation is one level at which dialects may differ from each other. There are other levels. One fairly obvious one is vocabulary: For example, in some regions of New England, tonic refers to what in other regions of the United States is called pop, soda pop, or simply soda. The retention of the term icebox by members of older generations where younger speakers say refrigerator also reflects this level of difference, as do the British forms jumper, chemist, and boot for American sweater, drugstore, and (car) trunk, respectively.

Dialects also contrast with each other in terms of the way words are composed and the way that words are combined in sentences—the grammatical patterns of the language system. For example, in some rural areas of the South (reflecting an affinity with dialects of the British Isles), the plural -s may be left off of nouns of measurement, as in four mile down the road or sixteen pound of fish. Other dialect areas would use the plural -s in these phrases. With respect to the combinations of words in sentences, an indirect question may be expressed as He asked me could he go to the movies or as He asked me if he could go to the movies, and negative patterns may be expressed as He didn’t do anything or He didn’t do nothing. In some dialects, both of these alternatives are used; in others, only one. Similarly, a grammatical difference between British and American English reveals itself in responses to the question Have you read that book? A British speaker might say, No, but I should have done, and an American speaker might say, No, but I should have.

Beyond differences in levels of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammatical structure, there is also variation in how members of groups use particular language forms in social interaction. A Northerner and a Southerner may both use the terms of respect sir and ma’am, but in contrasting ways that reflect different sociocultural conventions governing respect and familiarity. One social group may feel that it is appropriate to ask people what they do for a living, whereas another group may consider that question rude or invasive. Some of these rules are explicitly discussed in socializing children, but many are part of our unconscious knowledge as a member of our speech community about how to get along in the world through talking. Patterned differences in language use related to social and cultural group differences may be hard to pinpoint, but they can readily lead to cross-cultural communication conflict because they often represent highly sensitive areas.

Groups of people who share basic expectations about language use—speech communities (Hymes, 1974)—also differ in the ways that they carry on conversation. For example, in some speech communities, speakers overlap each other’s talk enthusiastically in a good, satisfying conversation, whereas in others, a speaker is likely to stop talking when another one starts. Even what makes for a good conversational contribution can vary from group to group (Tannen, 2005). Garrison Keillor often refers humorously to what a good Minnesotan or a good Lutheran would say. One of his stories includes a conversation in which a new boat owner responds to compliments by talking about the expense and time involved in maintaining the boat—as a good Minnesotan should, says Keillor—rather than saying how much fun it is (National Public Radio broadcast, July 1986). Speakers of English from other backgrounds might find such a response to a compliment to be inappropriate and even insulting.

Sources of Dialect Difference: Region and Social Class

Language differences on all levels ultimately reflect basic, patterned behavior differences among groups of people. There may be diverse reasons underlying differences in language, but they all derive from this basic principle. When groups are physically or socially separated in some way, language differences can be expected as groups of people follow different paths of language change. These differences are an important source of language change, and languages are always changing.

Many of the regional differences in U.S. English can be traced to combinations of history and physical factors in the country’s geography. Some patterns can be explained by looking at settlement history, which suggests the language patterns of the early settlers. The movement of the population, historically and currently, also has a bearing on the language of regions because people take their language practices with them when they move. Finally, characteristics of physical geography affect language change. Natural barriers such as mountains and rivers that have cut people off from each other historically have created a natural basis for dialect differences to emerge and be maintained. The terrain serves to set people apart so that communication networks cannot be formed.

Social and cultural factors are also responsible for diversity in ways of speaking. Social status and ethnic distinctions in our society are often reflected in language differences, along with age and gender distinctions. Typically, the greater the social distance between groups, the greater the language differences. This principle does not always work exactly, but it is a reasonably accurate predictor of how language differences reflect group behavior differences.

Social status and regional differences interact. Thus, it can be expected that a lawyer from Arkansas will speak differently from a Northern automobile factory worker, or a White Appalachian farmer in an isolated mountain area will speak differently from a Black California business executive, or a Native American artist in New Mexico will speak differently from an Italian American police officer in New York. These characterizations include geographical, social, and cultural factors, all of which have been prominent in distinguishing groups of individuals from each other in American society. The same distinctions are important in understanding language differences.

Studies of various dialect groups generally indicate that regional dialects tend to be distinguished by pronunciation and vocabulary features, whereas social dialects show variation in these areas as well as in grammatical usage. We might guess that someone is from Eastern Massachusetts if he or she pronounces the word idea with an r sound at the end (“idear”) in a phrase like the idear of it and drops the r sound on a word like star (“stah”), saw a falling star last night. But many pronunciation differences concern the vowel sounds in words. For instance, many Southern regional dialects vary from those in other parts of the country according to the way that speakers pronounce words with vowel glides, such as line or ride. (A glide is a vowel quality that is attached to a main vowel. The vowel in line or ride consists of a main vowel, a, that flows into a vowel with the quality of ee or y [e.g., “layn” or “rayd”].) People from Southern areas of the United States are likely to say something like “lahn” or “rahd,” without the glide, whereas people from Northern areas would pronounce these words with the...