In the article, Language in Society, I found the section about language differences in the classroom interesting. The powerful influence of school over its young pupils is discussed in the beginning of the article. While reading this article, I was shocked at how important a role that school has on our learning of language and the impact of language on our overall education. The section which discusses language differences in the classroom really got me thinking about how impacting a teacher’s relationship with a student could be. I find it exceedingly frustrating that many teachers choose to treat students differently, as he or she did in the example. Teachers are supposed to be fair and want to help all students learn. I feel that in many of the examples within the article, teachers haven’t been fair to all students. In many situations, a teacher has to explain things in many different ways or ask questions in different ways so that children can understand better. Why can’t teachers do that with story time? The example regarding the two communities was also frustrating to me. I feel that teachers need to be educated about the way they are teaching and asking questions and they then need to use all types of language to help all students. In my opinion, maybe doing a little bit of each “type of language” will help all students in understanding a concept or example. The teacher can work with the students in teaching them Standard English while at the same time, learning their language so that both sides can understand where the other is coming from. What other approaches can be taken to solve this problem of teachers and schools hindering children’s ability to perform well academically because of a lack of understanding Standard English?
Comments (1)
It's really frustrating that teachers do not pay much efforts to help students with low performance do better. I have had some teaching experience, so I can say that your suggestion that teachers try to explain things to pupils in their own language is very useful. The problem is that teachers look down at using any dialect other than the Standard one. Besides, most pedagogues discourage this method, believing that it would open the door for everyone to use their own dialect. I suggest that teachers use modeling, i.e. give examples and answers to similar questions, so that things become more clear and accessible to all. A teacher can also make remedial plans, and meet individually with that group of pupils, where he/she can use their own language. This way, pupils would be more willing to use their language as most of them feel shy when treated differently in front of their classmates.
Posted by Hussein | March 7, 2008 6:03 PM
Posted on March 7, 2008 18:03