Investigating How and Why My Sixth Graders Use Mainstream English, Ebonics (African American Vernacular English), Spanglish, and Hmonglish

• In Event: 47.096 - MTCC Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: 47.096-4 - Welcoming, Encouraging, and Celebrating the Authentic Voices of K–12 Students of Color

Abstract

When students-of-color incorporate the non-dominant Englishes that the speak with family and friends into their school-based speech and writing, it frequently triggers unnecessary remediation of CCSS ELA conventions. Situated within a wider multi-year teacher research investigation, this dissertation study was prompted by my growing curiosity about my 6th graders’ use of Ebonics (AAVE), Spanglish, and Hmonglish at school—despite their ability to translate their ideas into mainstream English.

Although culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), as popularized by Ladson-Billings (1995), contains three equally important tenants, many contemporary applications of CRP focus solely on cultural competence with inadequate attention devoted to academic achievement and critical consciousness. Further, Paris (2012) and others have lovingly critiqued current applications of CRP charging that “the term and stance of ‘relevance’ or ‘responsiveness’ does little to explicitly support this goal” (Paris, 2013, p. 95). In his effort to extend Ladson-Billings’ CRP, Paris promotes a culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) that will “…support young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competence” (Paris, 2013, p. 95).

Through use of the constant comparative method of data analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), I employed grounded theory to address the following research question: How can I employ classroom dialogue and student writing protocols to gain deeper insights about my students’ linguistic practices and metalinguistic awareness?

The data gathered were a collection of artifacts that were routinely generated by the curriculum executed within my 6th grade classroom over a three-year period including lesson plans, student writing, and teacher-researcher’s journal entries and reflective memoranda addressing my developing insights about students’ linguistic practices.

Preliminary findings challenge the validity of traditional assessment results by suggesting that many students can proficiently translate their ideas between their non-dominant Englishes which are privileged at home and in the community (Ebonics/AAVE, Spanglish, Hmonglish, etc.) and academic or mainstream English which is privileged at school. Further, students’ tendency—albeit inadvertently—to rely on their non-dominant Englishes to express themselves in spite of their awareness about how standard language ideology privileges mainstream English at school suggests that they don’t ascribe deficit valuations to these ‘languages of the heart.’

Through employing classroom dialogue and student writing protocols that empower middle school youth by welcoming, encouraging, and celebrating their authentic voices, I have improved my pedagogy and gained deeper insights about their linguistic practices. In doing so, I have deepened my own praxis of culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris, 2013) in my work as a teacher-researcher of youth with linguistic plurality. This research has allowed me to promote my students’ acquisition of mainstream competences through investigating and strengthening their proficiency of mainstream or “academic English,” while also supporting my students’ right to their own language (NCTE, 1974)—their “languages of the heart.” Teacher educators, pre-service and novice teachers, as well as veteran teachers whose efforts serve youth with linguistic plurality should share my interest in the insights and findings generated by this investigation.

Author

• BernNadette Thokozile Best-Green, University of California - Davis