Language Variations and Ideologies

Language Variations language ideologies

It is so interesting to me that in the one city I will be teaching in (Chicago) there will be hundreds of different Englishes that I am going to see, right in my classroom. To me this is exciting and fascinating and because I have taken so many TESOL classes I know that this is indeed a great thing rather than a negative which some teachers might think. Before taking TESOL classes I did not really know how I was going to address some language issues in the classroom, and to be honest with you I still don’t know perfect ways to deal with language diversity.  This is why I am so excited to actually be in the classroom to gain experience and confidence. Because so many of my future students are going to be coming from different households with parents whose ideas and principles about language are going to differ. I am going to have many different Englishes as well as different languages completely. I am going to have so many students who are going to depend on me to teach them the language skills they are going to need to thrive. This makes me extremely excited and stressed all at the same time but I cannot wait to get in the classroom.

Recently in my history of the English language class we have learned about African American English and while sitting in the class I found many similarities between what we learn in this class and what was being taught that specific day. We talked about how AAE can either be seen as a variety of English or its own classification of English but either way we must treat the students who speak AAE with the respect that they deserve. Just because AAE is not “standard” English the students who speak it are just as intelligent as the students who do not. At the same time we must teach “standard” English to ever student while still supporting their home language. The similarities in the class made me happy because there are students in that class that do not take TESOL courses and it is nice knowing that they we are all being taught similar practices.