Language+and+Society+Daybook+Entries

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//**Context:** Three times during the semester, we were asked to compile and comment on entries from our daybooks that we were to be utilizing in class on a daily basis, even though this was a strictly online class. The daybook entries for each portfolio have captions that explain what the entry was about and how it related to the content we were studying in class. //=====

Portfolio #1 Daybook Entries
 I try to write in my daybook every day, and when I went to write on September 11, I was really struggling to get through that entire day without having some sort of breakdown like I have in years past. I found solace in writing about what I was struggling with, even with the words I was struggling to use that entire day to talk about how I felt. I've learned that this type of writing is really therapeutic for me, but it also opens my eyes to the language I'm using when I'm writing for this purpose.



This was the second week of class and I already saw how the sometimes tumultuous history of our English language makes it so difficult to learn and utilize "correctly". Since this instance, my students and I have had several other conversations of this sort - specifically about how to pronounce "rhetoric".



My great-grandma was an immigrant from Finland in the early 20th century and she made it a personal goal to learn English as soon as she could, but it wasn't until my grandmother and my great uncle went to school that she actually learned how to speak and write "correctly." I often wonder about some people's attitudes concerning the "necessity" to speak "standard English" as a non-native speaker.



After taking The Reading and Writing Connection over the summer, I found that being able to effectively communicate with my students is so important, and now that I'm in this class, I'm also seeing how language and my attitude toward language also makes a difference.



When Lippi-Green was explaining this, I was wondering how this could have an impact on a student in school - could his/her prosodic or segmental variations impact the effectiveness in communicating with other students or the teacher? Should this really matter?



This section of chapter three really brought out this question - is our "need" to have a Standard US English based on the English language's history? Or, is it because we always find the need to create a standard in order to have a "non-standard" like Lippi-Green mentioned?

=Portfolio #2 Daybook Entries =



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 1 discusses the idea of linguistics as a field within English studies. I connected this idea about language as power to some literature I read during my summer course done by Louise Erdrich and how she was regaining linguistic power by reclaiming her "native" language of Chippewa. This class has helped me see how linguistics can be a powerful tool for writers like Erdrich.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 3 discusses the "impact of...social...forces on written and spoken English in school and society." Throughout Chapter 4 of EWA, I questioned what it truly meant to be a teacher in this kind of setting where my influence is seen as one of the causes and proponents the "homogenization" of English. I've wondered how this not only impacts my students but myself as a teacher. Is there really any way to avoid this kind of stigma as an English teacher?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 4 talks about the "issues of language, power, and their relationship in education and social settings." During Chapter 5, Lippi-Green focuses on how children learn to discriminate based on language, and much of this is done through the media. Whether we want to believe it or not, much of our information and ideas come from media, and their power not only lies in the distribution of information but HOW that information is distributed. The language that the news media decided to use after 9/11 created a stereotype of Muslims that was based on their personal appearance and their accent.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 5 asks us to look at "the variety and nature of dialects and register variations within English and the perceived implications of these in school and society." It's difficult to not see these things happening in a school system anywhere in the United States, but what I found throughout the last couple chapters of EWA is that language has power. Do students who speak with an accent automatically start out with the chips stacked against them because they do not speak "standard" English? Do their teachers choose to not "recognize" and judge their students' accents and turn away from them because of that? This chapter really forced me to reflect on my own practices in my classroom and how I communicate with my students and if I am discriminating against any of my students with accents.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 7 asks to "apply professional and reflective research strategies to real-world experiences" - I think that this was a point where I really had to grapple with what I was telling my students versus what I was actually doing in my classroom. The new Common Core State Standards are really making this ideal of finding a "reasonable appropriacy" for teaching and expecting "standard" English difficult; however, I will continue to push myself and my students to speak and write to me, when appropriate, in a way that is natural and comfortable for them, simply because they ask the same of me.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">So, it's clear that October 12 was a pretty pivotal work day for me in my study for this class. I made some significant gains and discoveries throughout this chapter, and I think that this entry truly expresses how much I have been processing this information not just for my studies in class but how this type of questioning is essential to my teaching. It has always been my desire to give students the education that they deserve, and through this class, I've seen that simply being aware of how I am communicating with my students can make a difference in their learning as well as in my teaching.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This last entry has been one of my favorites, and mostly because of the timing of my entry. I was getting really excited about my mini-DA #4 assignment. I was sitting at my normal workstation in the typical environment - iPod plugged in to drown out the sounds of David's PS3 noise in the background and a mug of tea next to me. All of a sudden, I looked up and saw the simple beauty of the world that we tend to overlook in the midst of all our daily hustle and bustle. Fall is my favorite time of year and this entry really captures my feelings about why that is. It was a nice "break" from my linguistically driven entries in my daybook.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Portfolio #3 Daybook Entries
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 2 asks us to have a "general history of the English language." Because of the knowledge of where our language came from and how it was formed, we are able to connect ideas from our language's history to issues in linguistics and language today, much like the "multi-negation" debate in AAVE & SWVE. This linguistic concept was actually deemed "correct" in Old English; therefore, it's actually "incorrect" to say that AAVE & SWVE are not variants of English. And because of my knowledge of the Finnish language from personal and educational contexts, I also made this connection.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 3 asks us to consider "the impact of cultural, economic, political, social and technological forces on written and spoken language in school and society." Chapter 10 was a real eye-opener for me as a Northerner, simply because I didn't realize how stigmatized the attitudes of a Northern accent to Southerners really was. After reading this chapter, I really questioned if my students, who are mostly born-and-raised Southerners, edit themselves around me because of the criticism that they have received in the past or what their culture as a whole has experienced. I wondered how this idea of criticism should be handled - I clearly cannot change how I speak. However, it is my job as an educator to validate all variations of language in my classroom in order to foster an educational context and environment of acceptance and equality despite how Northerners typically stereotype language, especially SWVE.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 4 asks us to demonstrate the "issues of language, power, and their relationship in education and social settings." There is clearly a power struggle between "standard" and "non-standard" English in our country. We expect our students, particularly in NC, to be able to speak and write in "standard" English when we've established, through LG's work and our own discussions, that there is no true "standard." Because there is a stipulation that "standard" English gives people power, language is also talked about in "standard" ways that helps to better ensure and recreate the existence of "other" in ways besides how English "should be" spoken.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 5 asks us to consider "the variety and nature of dialects and register variations within English and the perceived implications of these in school and society." Comedy has been a way that we, as a society, have found acceptable to discriminate against others. In this case, Jeff Foxworthy, through his "...You Might be a Redneck" jokes/sayings, subordinates the Southern register variation of English (his own) by connecting it with poor, uneducated, and underprivileged people. However, there are also certain times in his skit when he perpetuates his own Southern accent. To people who already stereotype and discriminate against the Southern region of the US, this only makes the matter worse. Foxworthy, by making a point (even if subconsciously) to present certain ideas in a "thicker" Southern accent than others, negates his own disclaimer that "rednecks are not just in the South."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 6 asks us to question "how to talk and write about language in various social, cultural, historical and educational contexts." The music video that we watched & listened to about the equality of all variations of English made it clear that in our culture, society and history, there has been an issue with language discrimination, regardless of our national beliefs that American is a place where people of all cultures, races, languages and ethnicities can prosper. Our culture has attached a stigma to those who do not speak "standard" English, and it is only through education, like this class, and our ability as teachers to impart our own learning on our students, that we can maybe start to change and reshape this opinion of "standard" English.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Objective 7 asks us to question "how to apply professional and reflective research strategies to real-world experiences..." During our "mini-lesson" on what grammar is truly about in the linguistic sense, I went and dug up my "Structure of the English Language" notes from my undergraduate classes. I looked through my notes to refresh my memory about what we discussed, and like I thought, we discussed how to talk about language and how to convey those ideas to students - never once did we discuss what was "right" or "wrong." So, where does this come from? I think my entire education, until college, this is what I though of grammar.When I now discuss what I used to call "DGP" with my students, we now talk about "sentence composition."

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This was the entry I wrote two days after I found out that my maternal grandfather, my Pump, had a stroke and was in Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. I guess it didn't really hit me until the moment I decided to go to PA. I wasn't really sure how he was because my mom has a notorious track record for covering up how bad the situation truly is. I cried a lot, but I wasn't sure how to react other than that - I didn't feel like I could even be hopeful for his recovery. I knew that if I didn't go, and something happened to him, I would regret it for the rest of my life. So, the night before I left, I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning doing my work and getting things ready to leave and I needed to write about what was going on inside my head just in case I got to PA too late, as well as for my own sanity. So, I wrote a small list -definitely not complete- of everything my Pump has taught me about life. I've dreaded the day that I don't have Pump or Mimi in my life, but through my Pump's unwavering faith in God and prayer, I know that no matter what life brings for him, I'll be okay.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In the midst of all of the Christmas craziness going on at our household - I'm not really sure how only two adults and a dog can have as much going on as a family of 5, but we do - I put off doing my homework last week until Sunday night. I have never been a procrastinator. I normally have a solid "game plan" and don't wait until the last possible moment to complete anything. I work on things throughout the week and allow myself some solid "think tank" time, especially on my reading and Ning writing. Sunday night, I went to go look for my daybook and LG, and they were not where they always are - on my stack of graduate school work on the hutch in the dining room. Needless to say, I had what I have deemed a major meltdown, complete with tears, frustration, fears of disappointment/shame/dishonor, and insanity. With all of that said, I learned two important lessons here. 1) I am NOT made to procrastinate. 2) I will never procrastinate EVER again.