I really like comparing languages, and I think the idea of comparative reconstruction is really interesting... but what I couldn't get out of my head as I read this chapter is the snobbery associated with languages. I guess it's fresh in my mind. I recently wrote somewhere for this class about my vocab incident - a coworker upset because my Spanish speaking students' Tex-Mex "slang" for lunch bag was rubbing off on her Spanish learners. I couldn't stop thinking about that as I was reading about pidgins and creoles. Language and identity are so strongly interrelated and we cannot forget that as educators. One of my students said the word "empuchar" /ɛmputʃɑr/ (push) which is a Tex-Mex version of "empujar" /ɛmpuhɑr/... the word for push which is considered to be more standard. (I don't even like to use the word standard anymore... I'm coming to believe it's really just a more socially valued version of the word rather than an actual "standard" version.) When he used this word, a Spanish-speaking teacher overheard him, cornered him, and made him repeat the word her way several times. I felt horrible inside watching this. She's a very good person, but has been brought up to believe her language is better than his, and feels she has the right to correct him.
My students are socially towards the bottom of the totem pole in San Antonio. Their dialect is not valued by upper-class Spanish speakers, and their language is not valued by English speakers, unless their own children can learn Spanish through the "Spanish immersion" program and become privileged middle or upper-class bilinguals. Our (subtractive) transitional bilingual education program removes their Spanish from instruction, replacing it with English, and they end up as unbalanced bilinguals who have a far worse chance of going to college than other students, particularly their middle to upper-class bilingual peers.
How can I combat the kind of situation my little student faced as his dialect was demeaned by that other teacher? If everyone around you looks down on your language - your IDENTITY - what chance do you have? If you grow up believing your dialect is inferior, I imagine that subconsciously you feel YOU are inferior and less-educated. No wonder so few make it to post-secondary education.
I know this seems like a tangent, but in a way it's not. The chapter really does connect to this thought for me. Seeing the "big picture" of historical linguistics makes all the social language snobbery I'm witnessing seem like such B.S. What right does anyone have to criticize another person's language when their own is simply a "vulgar" version of something else?
How in the world can I fight the social obstacles my students face??? They don't deserve that.
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