Affirming Students Right To Their Own Language

A Co-publication of the National Council of Teachers of English and Routledge. How can teachers make sound pedagogical decisions and advocate for educational policies that best serve the needs of students in today’s diverse classrooms? What is the pedagogical value of providing culturally and linguistically diverse students greater access to their own language and cultural orientations? This landmark volume responds to the call to attend to the unfinished pedagogical business of the NCTE Conference on College Composition and Communication 1974 Students’ Right to Their Own Language resolution. Chronicling the interplay between legislated/litigated education policies and language and literacy teaching in diverse classrooms, it presents exemplary research-based practices that maximize students' learning by utilizing their home-based cultural, language, and literacy practices to help them meet school expectations. Pre-service teachers, practicing teachers, and teacher educators need both resources and knowledge, including global perspectives, about language variation in PreK-12 classrooms and hands-on strategies that enable teachers to promote students’ use of their own language in the classroom while also addressing mandated content and performance standards. This book meets that need. Visit http://www.ncte.org for more information about NCTE books, membership, and other services.

Students’ Right to Their Own Language collects perspectives from some of the field’s most influential scholars to provide a foundation for understanding the historical and theoretical context informing the affirmation of all students’ right to exist in their own languages. Co-published with the National Council for Teachers of English, this critical sourcebook archives decades of debate about the implications of the statement and explores how it translates to practical strategies for fostering linguistic diversity in the classroom.

There are many approaches to researching the difficulties in learning that students experience in the key areas of literacy and numeracy. This book seeks to advance understanding of these difficulties and the interventions that have been used to improve outcomes. The book addresses the sometimes complementary and sometimes contradictory results, and generates new approaches to understanding and serving students with difficulties in literacy and numeracy. The book represents a departure from conventional wisdom as most scholars and graduate students draw upon ideas from only one of the three domains focal in the book and usually from one single or dominant theoretical frame. Typically, readers will affiliate with reading education, mathematics education, or learning disabilities and belong to one of the corresponding professional associations such as IRA, NCTM, or CLD. This book’s scope will open a scholarly forum for engaging readers with a familiarity with one of these domains while providing insight into the others on offer in the book.

First-Year Composition: From Theory to Practice’s combination of theory and practice provides readers an opportunity to hear twelve of the leading theorists in composition studies answer, in their own voices, the key question of what it is they hope to accomplish in a first-year composition course. In addition, these chapters, and the accompanying syllabi, provide rich insights into the classroom practices of these theorists.

Students’ Right to Their Own Language collects perspectives from some of the field’s most influential scholars to provide a foundation for understanding the historical and theoretical context informing the affirmation of all students’ right to exist in their own languages. Co-published with the National Council for Teachers of English, this critical sourcebook archives decades of debate about the implications of the statement and explores how it translates to practical strategies for fostering linguistic diversity in the classroom.

Standardized tests demand Standard English, but secondary students (grades 6-12) come to school speaking a variety of dialects and languages, thus creating a conflict between students’ language of nurture and the expectations of school. The purpose of this text is twofold: to explain and illustrate how language varieties function in the classroom and in students’ lives and to detail linguistically informed instructional strategies. Through anecdotes from the classroom, lesson plans, and accessible narrative, it introduces theory and clearly builds the bridge to daily classroom practices that respect students’ language varieties and use those varieties as strengths upon which secondary English teachers can build. The book explains how to teach about language variations and ideologies in the classroom; uses typically taught texts as models for exploring how power, society, and identity interact with language, literature, and students’ lives; connects the Common Core State Standards to the concepts presented; and offers strategies to teach the sense and structure of Standard English and other language variations, so that all students may add Standard English to their linguistic toolboxes.

This comprehensive bibliography provides more than 1600 references to publications from the past half century on education in relation to African American Vernacular English, English-based pidgins and creoles and other vernacula Englishes, with accompanying abstracts for many.

In today’s culturally diverse classrooms, students possess and use many culturally, ethnically, and regionally diverse English language varieties that may differ from standardized English. This book helps classroom teachers become attuned to these differences and offers practical strategies to support student achievement while fostering positive language attitudes in classrooms and beyond. The text contrasts standardized varieties of English with Southern, Appalachian, and African American English varieties, focusing on issues that are of everyday concern to those who are assessing the linguistic competence of students. Featuring a narrative style with teaching strategies and discussion questions, this practical resource: Provides a clear, introductory explanation of what is meant by non-standard English, from both linguistic and educational viewpoints. Emphasizes what educators needs to know about language variation in and outside of the classroom. Addresses the social factors accompanying English language variation and how those factors interact in real classrooms. “A landmark book. . . . It guides linguists and educators as we all work to apply our knowledge on behalf of those for whom it matters most: students.” —From the Afterword by Walt Wolfram, North Carolina State University “In the ongoing debate about language we typically hear arguments about what students say and/or how they say it. Finally, a volume that takes on the ‘elephant in the parlor’—WHO is saying it. By laying bare the complicated issues of race, culture, region, and ethnicity, Charity Hudley and Mallinson provide a scholarly significant and practically relevant text for scholars and practitioners alike. This is bound to be an important contribution to the literature.” —Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison “An invaluable guide for teachers, graduate students, and all lovers of language. The authors provide a comprehensive and fascinating account of Southern and African American English, showing how it differs from standardized English, how those differences affect children in the classroom, and how teachers can use these insights to better serve their students.” —Deborah Tannen, University Professor and professor of linguistics, Georgetown University