This essay uses storytelling as a mode of inquiry to explore how students with languages other than English and with diasporic experiences and identities negotiate a pathway for themselves in a relentlessly Anglophone environment. I share a story that provides a small window into the everyday work of an English teacher in a large, linguistically…

Language awareness has been largely overlooked by the American education system. This paper provides background knowledge needed to justify language awareness in classroom teaching. As educators we need to be more informed and think more systematically about teaching linguistic diversity in our classrooms.

The ways in which literacy in English is taught in school generally subscribe to and perpetuate the notion of a homogenous, unvaried set of writing conventions associated with the language they represent, especially in relation to spelling and punctuation as well as grammar. Such teaching also perpetuates the myth that there is one…

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale research project which investigated the levels of awareness and knowledge of written standard English of 10 and 11-year-old children in two English primary schools. The project involved repeating in 2010 a written questionnaire previously used with children in the same schools in three separate…

This article draws on a survey of 64 self-identified multilingual faculty from across the disciplines who currently teach with writing in English at the undergraduate and graduate level. The survey asked faculty about their linguistic experiences from childhood through the present and thus offers insights about the complexity of multilingual…

The purpose of this study was to examine the language ideologies--the assumptions about the nature of language, language variation, and language learning--reflected in a widespread daily editing activity often known as Daily Oral Language or Daily Language Practice. Through a yearlong ethnographic study of grammar instruction in three urban,…

The history of efforts to agree upon standard English usage is outlined here, with particular attention to the role of the National Council of Teachers of English. Controversy among teachers often meets the Council's attempts at reform. Efforts to balance policy between standard spoken usage and individual dialects are noted. (CHK)

Liberian English differs from standard educated English. English teachers in Liberia are attempting to teach standard spoken English rather than the Liberian dialect, using TEFL strategies. This article discusses the phonological, syntactic, morphological, lexical and semantic characteristics of Liberian English and the consequences for English…

Compares the ideology of English monolingualism with a standard language ideology used to position speakers of different varieties of the same language within a social hierarchy. The article discusses the connection between assumptions underlying linguistic ideologies and other social ideologies related to individualism and social mobility. (104…

This study sought to determine whether there is a variety of Nigerian English acceptable as a teaching model to prospective Nigerian primary school teachers of different ethnic groups. Results indicate that: (1) contrary to common belief, there are Nigerians of different ethnic groups who speak a variety of English acceptable to other Nigerians of…

After 1580 the English language was no longer considered barbarous because important works had been written in it, its vocabulary had expanded, and it had been adorned with the devices of classical rhetoric. It did not have, however, a dictionary or grammar, the fourth quality that makes a language eloquent. Thus, the eighteenth century…

In an "Esquire" magazine column, John Simon attempts to trivialize, through visual satire, the articulation by Wayne O'Neil of the linguistic position that teaching standard English perpetuates oppression and is itself oppressive; but his attempt provides, instead, a vivid representation of the political relationship between the teaching of…

This monograph explores the conflicts in attitudes toward language that occur and in which English teachers may be asked to uphold forms and conventions of traditional grammar standards while they have linguistic training and knowledge that support a more flexible language usage. Chapters deal with conflicts in attitudes toward language, language…

Supporters of the teaching of "standard English" maintain that permitting students to retain their own dialects leads to chaos, hampers communication, and promotes ignorance. Those supporting the rights of students to retain their own dialects focus on the concept that language is constantly changing, expresses the thoughts of living people, and…

This research report deals with the transformations of stimulus sentences that primary grade speakers of Hawaii Creole English (HCE) made when they were asked to repeat sentences said to them in Standard English. The test used was the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) Standard English Repetition Test (SERT) which was administered to the 21…