Sunday, September 9, 2012

Question on bidialectism in the classroom (ENGL 338)

Is there a way to promote code-switching, or teach code-switching skills? My take from reading the article was that no one wanted to just promote SAE and no one wanted to ignore AAE, so how can we improve upon both? I don't think that SAE is a tool of white supremacy and I doubt that many English teachers use it as such (if there are any, then they really shouldn't be teachers, now should they?).

What becomes tricky to me is that while it is apparent that AAE has a place in education and if it were used in the classroom could benefit its speakers, SAE is dominant. We can criticize society all we want for being (or at least pretending to be) dependent on one dialect, but that does not change the fact that SAE is vitally important. I think as educators, we have to make sure that our students are gaining knowledge and that they will be prepared going forward. This is why I think code-switching may be a way to get the best of both worlds. Does the use of AAE alone promote code switching, or are there tips that teachers can use to promote it.

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