Spreading the Word: Language and Dialect in AmericaThe idea that there is one "best" English is so intuitively plausible and so relentlessly inculcated in us that it is only natural to attempt to uphold this "Standard" among our students. Our error is in thinking that anything that deviates from this Standard is wrong. In Spreading the Word, linguist John McWhorter proves that these nonstandard dialects are not bastardizations of Standard English, but alternate variations upon the basic plan of English, of which the Standard is but one. With a general focus on classroom applications, McWhorter makes accessible to teachers, teacher educators, and administrators basic language principles that are commonly accepted by linguists, but rarely disseminated to a general audience. Using data from several different languages, McWhorter shows that the speech differences we hear in America are qualitatively equivalent to those heard in other parts of the world where the same differences are not considered "bad language." He links his thesis not only to "prescriptive grammar," but to more immediate issues facing classroom teachers, such as Black English and code switching between Spanish and English. A complete chapter is dedicated to showing how mixture between languages is a worldwide and natural phenomenon, rather than a language-ravaging "accident." Spreading the Word closes with a brief overview of eight of the most spoken languages in this country that are least like English. In doing so, McWhorter helps us come to view the language palette that exists in our classrooms as an asset not a problem. Most of all, he reinforces our best instincts about accepting and celebrating our students language, while giving us solid grounds for doing so. |
From inside the book
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... sentence structures than their parents . In other words , these dialects , differing from standard speech only in ... structure can be different from the stan- dard's . Here is where things like the " regularity " be of Black English ...
Language and Dialect in America John H. McWhorter. SENTENCE STRUCTURE ACCENT SLANG Figure 2.1 In the same way , people whose dialect differs from the standard in terms of structure will also have both an accent as well as their own slang ...
... sentence structure ( that is , what makes the preceding passage immediately identifiable as black speech ) , not its slang . Slang in the Classroom ? The preceding example relates to the final reason this three - tiered conception of ...