photo credit: zinjixmaggir
This will probably read like the redux of a redux, or, at least, thoughts along Jennifer’s line, but I have been thinking about this since I attended a recent meeting at Baruch where a faculty member expressed concern about Baruch students not speaking Standard American English in the classroom. I was taken aback a bit for several reasons. First, though we are in a predominantly business and marketing-oriented context (versus, let’s say, my former job at Hunter, a Liberal Arts college), we do not seem to look at language as a communication tool within a global market context. I understand that we want to provide our students with solid (American) education, but they will probably work in an international context, if they do not already live there given that sheer existence in NYC is international.
The other thing is my desire to defend Baruch students. None of those I have worked with so far seemed careless about their assignment at hand, at least, when it came to oral presentations, and they did not use “slang” while presenting. Now, that they were using a more informal language among themselves, even with me, that is a different issue and anybody with any understanding of how language works would see why they do so.
While I was completing a degree in Sociolinguistics, our daily mantra was the idea of “context” and how language use always depends upon a specific language context necessitating code-switching. One qualifies as a skillful language-user being able to switch from one linguistic register to another, moving smoothly from one social context to another and being able to understand the intricacies involved.
I think any discussion about this issue is complicated by America’s own internal history, of types of American English in opposition, such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) versus standard American English. When a professor complains repeatedly about ‘slang’ (I was in that meeting, too), that suggests to me that the problem is with issues of American dialect, rather than the accented English spoken by a non-native speaker, or by someone from a different English-speaking country. [Cool graphic here, by the way – I don’t recognize all the flags, but I got the message.]
I was recently working with a group of students, mostly ESL students who spoke heavily accented English, plus one native New Yorker, preparing them for a rather formal oral presentation. I corrected the ESL students’ pronunciations of many words. I worry they will graduate without knowing the correct way to say standard business words, and it will hurt their job chances. [Since all the students I work with are business majors in their final semester, I think this is a valid concern.] On the other hand, I did not correct the student who was born here, who happened to be African American, when he pronounced ask as aks. I know that this pronunciation is not wrong in AAVE, so I think I was wary of appearing racist by telling him to pronounce it ‘the right way’ — even though I think using vernacular in a job interview could hurt his chances, too.
Suzanne just circulated again some info on ESL resources on campus, and I want to share these with a lot of my students. The problem they face is not just about having an accent, but with grammar issues and with making themselves understood. And I have an idea what it is like to be on the other side. Even though I studied Mandarin Chinese, I find I am usually uncomfortable with speaking it, because I know my Chinese is not very good. I worry that making the same kinds of grammar errors that an uneducated adult or a child might make will make me sound ‘dumb.’
Absolutely! True that we need to take linguistic diversity within the US into consideration.
My point, however, is more about the premise we start with: instead of looking at English as the current lingua franca of the world, we come from the direction of American English, expecting, like the faculty in this case did, that students acquiring an education within the US speak “correct,” hence standard American English.
A similar tendency I find watching news broadcast by American media: there is a narrowness of focus, not to say provincialism, that often leaves out everything that is not internal affair or closely related to US interests.
So we end up with American students chronically unwilling to learn a second language because they “have English,” after all. I know, it is always a question of social class and background as well, not to mention money, but still.
All the tips of my imaginary hats to Wendy for learning Mandarin! She is/was the American student I cannot account for!
P.S. As far as AAVE goes, I think it would be beneficial for the student to understand, again, the idea of sociolinguistic context, especially since not doing so might indeed hurt her job potential. AAVE is perfectly appropriate in one particular context, while standard American fits another one. There is nothing racist about making this distinction, I think. The same goes for any dialect or language variation, be that Southern American English or Pittsburghese, for example (I obviously spent some time in the Pitt and had fun talking to the ‘yintz
.