Language Empowerment in the Classroom
By Olivia Umholtz
(Each year RockScissorsPaper publishes the winners of the James Strickland Award for Writing. Named after an honored colleague and SRU Professor Emeritus, these award-winning essays have been submitted by SRU English faculty and winners have been determined by SRU English Department Faculty, the College of Liberal Arts, and Professor Strickland himself. The following essay deserves Honorable mention for the 2020-2021 academic year. Professor Strickland noted the following in selecting this essay: “An honorable mention should also go to Olivia Umholtz’s “Language Empowerment in the Classroom.” Umholtz asked teachers to become more aware of their students’ backgrounds and their home languages; with this knowledge, she hopes teachers will make their classroom environments ones that encourage diversity.”)
Imagine waking up in a familiar home with a family you can be completely yourself around. You are in your little world; you feel safe and free. However, it is only at home that you feel this way because you are in a world that has one correct way of functioning and you must conform. In other words, you must keep a part of yourself at home because it is not embraced in society. These experiences correlate to students in classrooms where there is only one standard language that is taught, and the rest are considered incorrect. In schools today, full of international students, classrooms are not embracing or creating multilingual environments. Black English is a dialect of what is considered standard English and was created by African Americans and is still used today. The author of “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is”, James Baldwin, brings forward the reality that Black English is still not accepted in both classrooms and society. Baldwin argues that the role of language plays a major part in individuals’ identity. June Jordan, the author of “Nothing Mean More To Me Than You And The Future Life of Willie Jordan”, argues that a huge problem in society is who dictates what languages are allowed and encouraged. Jordan’s perspective of the issue is we live in a society where instead of labeling more than one language as acceptable in a country with a population comprised of multiple backgrounds, there is only one standard English. An analogy that describes what being in a classroom feels like when you are forced to speak a specific language that you might not agree with, is portrayed in “The Banking Concept of Education” by Paulo Freire. Finally, a huge improvement in classrooms that incorporate many languages is discussed in “Code-Meshing and Writing Instruction in Multilingual Classrooms”, written by Alice Y. Lee and Lara J. Handsfield. Overall, teachers should be trained to be more aware of the student’s backgrounds in a classroom and practice creating an environment that encourages diversity of language, which will empower students in their future.
James Baldwin in his article about Black English in society, discusses the reality that America focuses so much on the acceptance of one correct way to read and write. Baldwin promotes the concept that having only one standard English should be changed. In the essay, the author brings forward the reality that Black English is still not accepted. Baldwin argues that the role of language plays a major part in individuals’ identity by saying, “[n]o one can eat his cake, and have it, too, and it is late in the day to penalize black people for having created a language that permits the nation its only glimpse of reality, a language without which the nation would be even more whipped then it is” (Baldwin 781). The argument James Baldwin explains is that as a nation, we are at a point in 1 history where normalizing other languages should not be dictated by a single group. The mentality Baldwin encourages is one that is accepting of all different backgrounds, dialects, and cultures, and more specifically, there is more than one standard version of any language. This correlates to in the classroom where students are taught only one way to read and write. Students are not taught any other languages nor are there any practices that discuss the concept. Baldwin argues that just like bilingual students, Black English, a dialect of “standard” English, is underrepresented in the classroom.
The essay, “Nothing Mean More To Me Than You And The Future Life of Willie Jordan” by June Jordan, portrays oppressive power in society. In this article, the author proves Standard English is controlled by people who are white, which gives Black English the connotation of being incorrect. In the world today, the reality of one single race dictating what is acceptable, should not be encouraged. June Jordan describes the state of English by saying, “[n]onetheless, White Standards of English persist, supreme and unquestioned, in these United States. Despite our multi-lingual population. . .White standards control our official and popular judgments of verbal proficiency and correct, or incorrect, language skills, including speech” (Jordan 2). The author provides the stance that instead of labeling more than one language as acceptable in a country with a population comprised of multiple backgrounds, there is only one Standard English. The author closes with a statement calling for a serious change in the way voices of people are heard by saying, “[s]omething has to be done about how this world is set up. Although it is a difficult task, we do have the power to make a change” (Jordan 10). Her closing statement to fix the way society picks and chooses what is considered right and wrong, argues that it is closed off to specific groups when it should be influenced by much more than that. Although we are in a world that is constantly changing, we must stand firm in the fact that a country will fail when divided. By not incorporating different backgrounds and languages into school systems, it closes off the opportunities and lessons that can be learned from those who are multilingual. The author calls for direct action to be welcoming to multiple languages and there is not just one correct way to speak. By doing this, it breaks the tension between groups of underrepresented people, described in Baldwin’s essay.
A representation of being forced to conform to a language that is not your own is displayed in “The Banking Concept of Education” by Paulo Freire. In this article, Freire compares the relationship between students and teachers as a Banking Concept where students are told to submit to the teacher with little to no collaboration. He believes that students are not supposed to be dominated by teachers and students today are taught with a lack of significance. Freire is suggesting that in schools, teachers should collaborate with students instead of forcing instruction. While it can be hard to meet the needs of every student in the classroom, humans are social creatures, and it is natural to communicate in multiple ways. The author additionally includes the idea that the concepts teachers are instructed to teach are lifeless in a sense and lack importance. He goes on to say how students are taught to memorize, and the more the students 2 can memorize, the better the teacher is. The problem lies with the teachers’ approach to leading the students to success. Students today are not meant to sit in a classroom allowing teachers to dictate them, which will in no way shape, or form set students up for success in a world where they have to think for themselves and can not just sit and watch the world crash and burn. Freire discusses the mindset of teachers in classrooms by saying, “[t]o that end, it enables teachers and students to become Subjects of an educational process by overcoming authoritarianism and an alienating intellectualism. . . ” (Freire 220). This line shows that if idea that teachers are better than students and deserve more authority is corrected, students will be able to collaborate with their teachers and get an education with significance. The banking concept way of teaching students is harming the future of leaders by forcing them to take on a passive role and cannot think for themselves. The language that is taught in this kind of classroom is one that students are not used to. The students’ natural language of collaborating and sharing ideas is not encouraged and what is deemed as the correct way to read and write is controlled by the teacher. The students have no say and not having their dominant language incorporated into the classroom environment, has an impact on their future. These experiences relate to those who are multilingual in a classroom that only promotes English. The students’ backgrounds are not expressed in the curriculum and are taught their primary language is incorrect despite being in a world full of diversity.
The article, “Code-Meshing and Writing Instruction in Multilingual Classrooms”, written by Lee, Alice Y., and Lara J. Handsfield defines what a classroom of language variety looks like, using code-meshing. Code-meshing “offers an instructional framework that incorporates multiple languages into classrooms, interrogates notions of which languages are “correct” or “appropriate” within those spaces, and broadens how to approach writing instruction for linguistically diverse students” (Lee and Handsfield 159). In other words, code-meshing is the practice of integrating multiple languages into the curriculum and encouraging the acceptance of diversity. Having audience awareness will empower students in their language and literacy development. An example of code-meshing in a classroom is Garza’s code-meshing, where Spanish nouns are substituted for English nouns but are given with context clues and images to help the monolingual students. According to Alice Lee and Lara Handsfield, some terms in Spanish “are difficult to translate in culturally meaningful ways, so presenting them in Spanish adds to the cultural authenticity of the text. Together, Garza’s codemeshing demonstrates a high level of audience awareness” (Lee and Handsfield 162). In other words, keeping some terms that are not easily translated in the text adds cultural learning. The importance of this specific code-meshing is instead of translating everything in the text and having the students read the English version, it incorporates the original text with context clues to help both readers. This style of teaching promotes critical thinking skills along with cultural awareness.
Overall, students who come from multilingual households tend to struggle in classrooms that promote one language. Society is made of much more than one 3 group, however, the acceptance of different ideas is not present. This correlates to Black English because it has been deemed as grammatically incorrect by those in power, the majority of them being white. This mentality needs to change for the tension that has been ongoing for decades will never end if awareness is not spread. The sooner people can accept differences between groups, cultures, and backgrounds, the sooner everyone will be seen as truly equal. The main point Baldwin makes in his essay is not one language is superior to the other and all of them are equally as beautiful. June Jordan also argues that despite the majority of people in power speak standard English and are white, this should be no excuse for the lack of diversity incorporated in schools. Similar to the banking concept, students should not be forced to speak a specific language that their teachers enforce. The specific language being teachers that dictate their students and treat them like objects. Their dominant language of collaboration should be not only encouraged but displayed throughout the classroom. A way to display diversity is through code-meshing, which reaches the underrepresented students that struggle to feel accepted because of their primary language not being English. Code-meshing creates an environment that stimulates critical thinking skills by observing different cultures instead of adjusting to meet basic comprehension skills. By exposing students to diversity and adding original text despite the language, teaches the students the world is not just English speaking.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1979, archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwinenglish.html.
Freire, Paulo. “The Banking Concept of Education.”
Jordan, June. “Nothing Mean More To Me Than You And The Future Life of Willie Jordan.”
Lee, Alice Y., and Lara J. Handsfield. “Code-Meshing and Writing Instruction in Multilingual Classrooms.” Reading Teacher, vol. 72, no. 2, Sept. 2018, pp. 159–168. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/trtr.1688.
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