How Should College Teachers Approach Different Dialects Essay

Submitted By lblargeman
Words: 480
Pages: 2

College Professors Teaching Standard American English Although non-standard dialects are the result of complex biological and inherent individual qualities, college professors must maintain consistency in their standards, and follow and teach the rules of Standard American English. No matter what dialect students have, teachers should treat all students equally and teach by the Standard American English. However, according to the research, this is only seems necessary when students are communicating in writing. Teaching students how to speak correctly is something one should not try to change. On one hand, Dalrymple believes, “ Children will learn their native language adequately whatever anyone does, and the attempt to teach them language is fraught with psychological perils… for he will speak in one way and live in another, creating hostility and possibly rejection all around him” (Dalrymple 3). Contrary to Dalrymple’s opinion that children will develop all of the linguistic skills he or she needs, “merely by virtue of growing older,” to advance to higher social classes and settings, a child in America needs to master the Standard American English language because that is the standard upon which educators must insist to consistently score effective written communication. College professors should not have to teach students at a college level how to write in Standard American English, but should require that students’ written communication conform to that standard. Students at this level should already have a firm grasp of the Standard American English language in their writing skills. Non-standard dialects are a form of verbal communication and which actually enhance communication. People typically do not communicate verbally in proper Standard American English because of this enhancement provided by the dialect. Pinker relies upon Labov’s interesting study tabulating the percentage of grammatical sentences in tape-recorded speech in a variety of social classes and settings. Pinker finds the results of this study “ enlightening” and explains, “The great