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“ Vernaculect ,” is that like Intellect?

“ Vernaculect ,” is that like Intellect?. ASCD 2012 Conference March 26, 2012 Ermile Hargrove, presenter. “ Vernaculect ” (coined by Jeff Siegel). The way we talk is influenced by our socio-linguistic and socio-cultural experiences and our communities of interaction and interactors .

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“ Vernaculect ,” is that like Intellect?

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  1. “Vernaculect,” is that like Intellect? ASCD 2012 Conference March 26, 2012 Ermile Hargrove, presenter

  2. 3/26/12eh “Vernaculect” (coined by Jeff Siegel) • The way we talk is influenced by our socio-linguistic and socio-cultural experiences and our communities of interaction and interactors. • This session is called “vernaculect” to explore language and thinking that students have acquired through their language environments and to explore how our understanding of students’ language experiences influences their thinking and academic success. • The “take-aways” we anticipate are that… • You will become interested in the way we talk. • You will want to learn more about how attitudes about classroom talk influences student achievement.

  3. 3/26/12eh Query • How many of you speak something other than English? • What is the language of instruction at your school? • Do you make a distinction between standard and non-standard languages?

  4. 3/26/12eh Introduction to Hawai`i • Aloha video: “What is Hawai`i, What is Aloha?” • Marlene Booth, “Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai`i”

  5. 3/26/12eh Introduction to the Hawai`i Creole Called Pidgin • The video you will see next is a production of a group of high school students from one of our rural schools. (C.M. Higgins, 2009) • Title: “Ha KamWiTawk Pidgin Yet?” or why are we still speaking Pidgin? • English has been the language of instruction since the 1850s and took precedence over Hawaiian during the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1895. • Pidgin has been the language of the community since the 1840s with the establishment of the plantations.

  6. 3/26/12eh Waianae High School video: At Home, At Work, In the Classroom • opening: girl, soliloquy • auto-shop: adult, opening when talking to other worker, when talking about what he’s doing with car • girl at home: opening clip • teacher: voice-over clip • closing: boy, clip on “da-kine,” “cannot talk proper…”

  7. 3/26/12eh What’s this session about? • You just saw snippets of a student video that was investigating what people think about a language we call Pidgin. It is a creole that has been around for a little more than a century. It is a young language. • How do you feel about the way the students talk? • This afternoon’s session is to explore how we think and react to the learner’s ways of talking and learning. • Attitudes we have about the languages children bring from their homes and communities influence their attitudes about the way they talk and their academic development.

  8. 3/26/12eh Student Awareness • Students may or may not be aware of the effect of their language use on instructional behavior. • However, the way a student talks influences the teacher’s attitudes about the student (which may affect the student’s academic program).

  9. 3/26/12eh Valuing or Devaluing Languages • What happens when a student comes to school with a “vernaculect” (other than English)? • Some students want to know why their way of talking is corrected or criticized. • Some students want to know why one way of talking is more valued than other ways of talking. • Some students become resilient; some become resistant.

  10. 3/26/12eh Ways of Talking… Have you heard about… • Pidgin • Ebonics Are you a speaker of any of these ways of talking? Others you might have heard about… • Spanglish • Newfoundland English

  11. 3/26/12eh English in Hawai`i • English is the mandated academic language of instruction in Hawai`i. • Hawaiian is the language of instruction in the State’s Hawaiian Immersion Program and in certain charter schools. • Academic use of other languages is found in foreign language classrooms. • However, teachers do use the vernacular as a means of communication in the classroom.

  12. 3/26/12eh Crossover • Different cultures, different languages • What happens when the community language (or the “vernaculect” of a student) meets the academic language of the school?

  13. 3/26/12eh Relationship Pidgin English in School academic language conventionalized teacher-student interactions discourse style constrained to instructional delivery myth that English empowers and leads to economic success • community language • informal • participatory interactions • discourse style includes shared knowledge • myth that Pidgin restricts economic success

  14. 3/26/12eh Link between Economic Freedom and Social Identity • South African struggle(source: NPR Music: Johnny Clegg: South Africa in Song) • Social networks (language environments with embedded world views) • Internal vs. external language • Internal in this case = native intuition • External = language in social contexts • Difference according to social situations (language variations)

  15. 3/26/12eh Tie between Identity and Language Use • Language variations according to social networks • How does a student maintain his or her community or familiar identity while developing his or her academic identity?

  16. 3/26/12eh Why Keep the Community Language? • Importance of biocultural diversity • Knowledge embedded in language (ways of talking, vocabulary, keepers of ideas) • What would we lose if we lost a “vernaculect” (community language)? • Could you consider yourself as a community language conserver?

  17. 3/26/12eh ALOHA • Accept our ways of talking as insights into our worlds. • Language is our unique asset and it is value-added. • Our acceptance of others’ ways of talking occur through our willingness to talk together. • Help each child to nurture his or her personal identity. • Add your voice of “aloha.”

  18. 3/26/12eh Sources of Information Videos: • “Ha KamWiTawk Pidgin Yet?” (YouTube) • “What is Hawai`i, What is Aloha?” (www.alohaconnects.com) • “Pidgin: The Voice of Hawai`i” (www.pidginthevoiceofhawaii.com) Websites: • www.sls.hawaii.edu/pidgin • www.satocenter.hawaii.edu/langnet

  19. Additional sources: bibliography • Eades, D. & S. Jacobs (2006) Part I: Pushing the Boundaries of “Appropriateness”: Pidgin and Local Identity. In S. Nero (ed.) Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates • Fairclough, N. (1992). The appropriacy of appropriateness. In N. Fairclough (ed.) Critical Language Awareness. London: Longman • Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an accent: Language ideology and discrimination in the United States. Routledge. New York. • Siegel, J. (2000). Substrate influence in Hawai‘i Creole English, Language in Society 29(2): 197-236. 20 3/26/12eh

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