Dialects, World Englishes and Education: Understanding Literacy From a Global Perspective

REVIEW ARTICLE TESOL Quarterly welcomes evaluative reviews of publications relevant to TESOL professionals Edited by MARGARET HAWKINS University of Wisconsin, Madison Dialects, World Englishes and Education: Understanding Literacy From a Global Perspective Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education Shondel Nero, Ed., 2006, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Pp xxi + 336 Linguistic Diversity And Teaching Nancy Commins and Ofelia Miramontes, 2006 Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Pp xvii + 204 Ⅲ These two volumes examine, from different scholarly perspectives, some prevailing varieties of Englishes in North American educational contexts and ways to address the academic needs of those who speak them In 12 chapters by diverse authors, Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education offers insight into World Englishes Drawing on works of Philipson (1992), Crystal (2004), and many others, the contributors exemplify how the growing number of speakers of nonstandard Englishes in the United States destabilizes the notion of standard English and exposes questions about proficiency, education, and social attitudes that every educator must confront Linguistic Diversity and Teaching articulates the complexities of language learning in elementary and secondary schools Commins and Miramontes’s discussion points toward the political ethos and the lack of economic resources of many school districts Both volumes explore how linguistic diversity and the status of particular varieties of English intersect with race, class, culture, and, above all, historical circumstances In doing so, they excel in covering the relevant theoretical and pedagogical aspects and in their appeal to the targeted audience: ESL teachers (current and prospective), and practicing researchers and graduate students in applied linguistics and TESOL Many parts TESOL QUARTERLY Vol 42, No 1, March 2008 149 of the volumes apply directly to U.S educators, both in K–12 schools and postsecondary institutions, and other parts have a more universal appeal The growth of English as a global language, as well as increased global migration in general, has raised questions about ownership of English, linguistic identities, and education As other languages come into contact with English, educators are increasingly feeling the need to redefine the concept of standard English and the larger sociopolitical context fostering it Section in Nero’s edited volume, titled “World Englishes, Creoles, and Education,” features two chapters In chapter 1, Kachru points out the marginalization of Indian, Singaporean, and Chinese Englishes despite their significant contribution to scholarship and pedagogy Citing the instance of Hindi and Urdu and the lexicogrammatical repertoire they share, Kachru brings to the reader’s attention the ambiguity between a language and a dialect and the sociopolitical and economic factors leading to the preference of one over the other In chapter 2, Siegel addresses the widespread belief that the use of African American vernacular English in classroom instruction impedes the acquisition of standard English Through careful analysis, Siegel deduces that far from deterring students from learning, the use of vernaculars actually bolsters learners’ self-esteem, helps them to have a command over readings, and has an array of other benefits The two chapters in Section 2, “African American Vernacular English (AAVE)/Ebonics,” address the Ebonics debate They take strikingly different approaches toward bidilectalism Outlining the major clauses in the resolution of the Oklahoma University School District, Rickford, in chapter 3, prescribes contrastive analysis as a response to bidilectalism On the contrary, in chapter 4, Delpit proposes the idea of openly acknowledging the power of dominant discourses because they have been found to bring socioeconomic success to many African American students The next three sections (chapters through 9) focus on, respectively, Caribbean Creole English, Hawaiian Creole English, and Hispanized English Chapters and 6, by Winer and Pratt-Johnson, delineate (respectively) features of Caribbean and Jamaican Creoles and ways to alleviate student–teacher miscommunication Quite distinctively, chapters 7, 8, and explore, from a sociolinguistic standpoint, the development of Hawaii English (referred to as Pidgin) and Hispanized English, and the self-ascribed identities of those who speak those dialects In chapter 7, Eades, Jacobs, Hargrove, and Menacker examine how use of Hawaiian Pidgin is linked to appropriateness and local identity In chapter 8, Garcia and Menken examine language use of the Hispanic population In chapter 9, Kells demystifies the linguistic stereotypes of MexicanAmerican students and outlines strategies for introducing them to academic discourse Highlighted from a critical stance are the disconnec150 TESOL QUARTERLY tion between the needs of these populations and current educational research and practice Although educators are greatly concerned about the low-level of academic competence of the speakers of these varieties, they tend to ignore the subtle realities of language use by focusing only on mainstream classrooms Section 6, “West African Pidgin English,” comprising a single chapter by de Kleine, is an analysis of writing samples from West African Pidgin English speakers enrolled in an urban ESL program Many of these students have somewhat general academic skills that interfere with their writing The goal of de Kleine’s study is “to examine the actual written language production of World English-speaking West African students by analyzing grammatical errors” (p 212) Section 8, “Asian Englishes,” comprises two chapters Govardhan’s study (chapter 11) is a long-needed comparative analysis of Indian and American writing Although English in India has a long history of institutional functions, formal rhetorical instruction is not part of the undergraduate curriculum This chapter, therefore, focuses on rhetorical differences between the two kinds of writing and ways to address them Chapters 10 and 11 are particularly noteworthy in this volume, owing to their solid analytical methods and the dexterity with which they alter the locus of discussion from oral to written discourse Chapter 12 presents the phonetical, lexical, and grammatical differences between Philipino and general American English (GAE) Having no corresponding equivalents in Philipino English, many linguistic features of GAE pose difficulties for Philipino immigrants Peter Elbow quite accurately observes in the forward to this volume that “what looks marginal can turn out to be central” (p x) This volume represents a paradigm shift and concludes with Nero calling for a dynamic view of language in policies, standards, assessment, linguistic identities, and research At the heart of this vibrant collection lies a theme of contradictory attitudes, one of both acclimatizing to and denigrating the vernacular For instance Kells, in chapter 9, points out that attitudes toward discursive practices in Tex Mex (the term she uses for the language of many South Texas bilinguals) have been largely pejorative Kells’s observation resonates with a fundamental tenet of linguistic imperialism The status of standard English generates a disparaging attitude toward vernaculars and dialects Such divisive and integrative functions (Philipson, 1992; Ramanathan, 2005) of English and vernaculars play out in macrosocial practices in many postcolonial settings, such as India and Nigeria As Seigel (chapter 2) and Rickford (chapter 3) maintain, one of the central arguments against the use of vernacular in the classroom is that such attention might deter students from acquiring standard English Yet others, such as Winer (chapter 5), Eades et al (chapter 7), and Kachru (chapter 1), take a critical stance toward stanREVIEW ARTICLE 151 dard language policies and emphasize the relevance of less prestigious varieties of English in relation to their more immediate settings In the light of this dynamic linguistic debate, what does it mean for American academic settings to be sensitive to linguistic diversity? What objectives should English language teaching embrace in regions where English is spoken as a dominant language, especially in postcolonial societies? Together the contributors quite cogently illuminate the multiplicity, fuzziness, and fragmentation of the existing linguistic continuum A demand for representing such hybridity in pedagogy and curriculum permeates each chapter As an original contribution to the existing body of work in world Englishes, almost all of the chapters comment on classroom practices, articulate a critical stance toward assessment, and suggest alternative practices To understand linguistically diverse populations, the contributors of this volume have used a rich array of methods (e.g., traditional linguistic and semantic analysis, detailed ethnographic approaches, and cutting edge F-unit analysis) for the study of language use This volume is recommended for anyone interested in the existing linguistic continuum, and the prestige of various varieties of English, many of which are often dismissed as broken, defective, and of little academic worth This volume is also a resource for introductory seminars in TESOL and sociolinguistics in American contexts and abroad The chapters however, vary in quality Some, for example, argue about the usefulness of a particular variety before familiarizing the readers with its features Despite provoking discussions, the lack of such information may at times impede audience understanding After engaging conceptually with these issues, Commins and Miramontes’s Linguistic Diversity and Teaching offers a concrete look at educating bilingual or multilingual students This book would serve as a good sequel to Nero, bringing the discussion about linguistic diversity and education full circle Drawing on the changing demographics of public schools, the authors advocate for viewing language learning as a situated process They adopt the view that literacy entails a clear understanding of discourse practices In order to communicate effectively, participants require access to the rules and practices of discourse communities, a point that Delpit makes in the Nero volume and in many of her previous works This book is divided into three sections Section 1, “Case Studies and Reactions,” features four case studies, each of which detail formidable challenges that ESL learners pose for their monolingual, Anglo-American teachers Case Study 1, “Frank and Vu,” features a teacher’s attempt to respond to the needs of his ESL student The chapter describes how a teacher, lacking ESL expertise, makes some impulsive choices about his student’s pull-out instruction and what the consequences are Case Study 2, “Marisa’s Prospects,” is an account of 152 TESOL QUARTERLY how a teacher reaches out to a Spanish-speaking junior high school student and in the process revisits some of her own assumptions about bilingualism Case Study 3, “Friendship, Professionalism, and Programs,” presents the struggles a teacher goes through while catering to the changing nature of the student body in school Case Study 4, “What is Equal Treatment,” elucidates how teachers are torn between statemandated canons of assessment and linguistic needs of minority populations Each case study is followed by a detailed set of reader reactions Representing a range of ways that people from inside and outside the school district can respond to unusual circumstances, these reactions form an integral part of the book’s design Section 2, “Public Arguments,” brings these encounters into alignment with three major public discourses around the education of English language learners: English-only, bilingualism, and what the authors term the pragmatic approach Although these debates have been around for a long time, what sets this section apart is an objective illustration of how each case would appear under each of the three approaches The English-only and the bilingual education movements are both thoroughly embedded in political ideologies The reality of language and literacy practices therefore rests more on the political orientation of the school district than on pedagogical efficacy Neither English-only nor bilingualism acknowledges that irrespective of the medium of instruction, ESL students will still have to master the curriculum Many who consider both of these options dysfunctional opt for a third possibility, the pragmatic approach This view “advocates for the use of primary language when possible, while at the same time [it] accepts that an all-English program can be successful” (p 133) Embedding case studies into public discourses around the language of instruction provides an insight into the existing gap between state-mandated policies and the students’ academic needs Readers are invited to further explore these key concepts through an array of reflective prompts Accordingly, part 3, “Final Arguments and Some Suggestions and Resources for Further Reflection,” features application of the pragmatic approach to the four cases introduced previously and recommends strategies and resources for exploring issues raised throughout the book Grounded in an egalitarian notion, suggestions for constructing an effective learning environment include pedagogical instruction organized around students’ prior literacy practices, collaboration between individual teachers, and accessibility of ESL support systems for monolingual teachers This section explores the deeper implications of bilingualism Being bilingual not only indicates proficiency in two languages but an ability to think, develop multiple perspectives, and compare and contrast thought processes across two languages This section also questions many longstanding assumptions about teachers Teaching is a skill that exists REVIEW ARTICLE 153 independent of language backgrounds, a point that Canagarajah (1999) makes Simply hiring bilingual teachers may be problematic Although many bilingual programs in English-speaking contexts welcome Spanish–English bilingual teachers, their level of Spanish proficiency may receive little attention Or, in many cases, Spanish-speaking teachers who are hired into bilingual positions are not fully proficient in English Alternatively, many monolingual English-speaking teachers who are willing to reach out to students’ needs are left to make decisions on their own without any school-sanctioned infrastructures This book is recommended for ESL teachers, practicing and prospective It would make a valuable contribution to curriculum development and teacher education programs In particular, the idea of grouping and regrouping students so that they can learn from each other is very appealing With repeated rearrangement of cohorts and more consistency between teaching strategies (the major piece of advice offered in section 3), teachers will be better able to support students’ content and language development The rest of the pedagogical advice in this section, such as standards-based instruction, balance in language and content, using prior literacy experiences, and other instructional approaches, however, lack the sharpness of the previous chapters Especially after the meticulously detailed case studies that provide readers with opportunities for critical reflection, one is easily tempted to say that much of what is offered as pragmatic is somewhat redundant Together the books show that because of the exponential increase in the number of speakers of World Englishes and English as second language, teachers are often unsure of the approaches they adopt And there are, of course, no ready answers for how to integrate this diverse student body into English-speaking academic environments Nevertheless, one can see attempts toward teaching and learning taking promising directions Scholars are acknowledging that the realities of language teaching and learning are far more complicated than they appear to be As such, blurry boundaries between dialects and languages, Creoles and languages, and standard and nonstandard Englishes intersect with issues of class, race, gender, access to material resources, and, above all, institutional politics and disciplinary divisions Yet this treatment of diversity might seem slanted to many readers While implicitly shifting the blame for the lack of educational success of linguistically diverse students to language policies and limited resources, these scholars fail to take into account the diligence and dedication of many immigrant students who come from non-English-speaking backgrounds and non-American literacy practices, and yet perform extremely well in American classrooms Stories of accomplishments along with those of failures and disillusionments would have rendered a more balanced picture of diversity Despite these minor problems, both volumes 154 TESOL QUARTERLY make a promising addition to the existing body of literature on language teaching, and the questions they ask are likely to prove thought provoking for readers REFERENCES Canagarajah, S (1999) Interrogating the “native speaker fallacy”: Non-linguistic roots, non-pedagogical results In George Braine (Ed.), Non-native educators in English language teaching (pp 77–92) Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Crystal, D (2004) The language revolution Malden, MA: Polity Philipson, R (1992) Linguistic imperialism Hong Kong: Oxford University Press Ramanathan, V (2005) The English-vernacular divide Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters SUBARNA BANERJEE University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States REVIEW ARTICLE 155