"Teachin' good": including students' and instructors' linguistic identities in the composition classroom

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Date
2015
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Publisher
University of Alabama Libraries
Abstract

This dissertation presents the findings of an IRB-approved case study on language exploration within the first-year composition classroom. The purpose of this case study is to determine the social and academic implications of incorporating students' and instructors' home languages in the composition classroom, to determine how incorporating the information about the instructor's linguistic identity influences how students receive language exploration activities, and to determine whether language exploration activities that include the instructor in the role of a bidialectal role model in the classroom improve students' appreciation of non-standardized varieties of American English. The first portion of the case study involves an analysis of the changes in students' views toward non-standardized American English (NSE) and Standardized American English (SAE) after completing the language exploration units. Based on the results of the first part of the study, I argue that including texts that promote language equality and discuss different varieties of American English, provide students with guidelines to critique the dominant language structure and appreciate NSE. The second portion of the study involves an analysis of the changes in students' views toward NSE and SAE after having the instructor incorporate examples of her home languages of African American English, Southern American English, and Louisiana Creole English in the classroom. Based on the results of this part of the study, I argue that having the instructor serve as a bidialectal role model in the classroom helps students appreciate NSE and overcome their personal insecurities involving language. Ultimately, I demonstrate concrete ways to apply the Conference on College Composition and Communication's position statement of "Student's Right to Their Own Language" (SRTOL) in a first-year writing classroom by creating opportunities not only for students to develop and share their own linguistic identities but also for me as an instructor to share my linguistic identity with my students.

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Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Keywords
Language, Pedagogy, Linguistics
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