DW1b

Before we began to discuss the topic of dialect discrimination in class I had no idea what a widespread effect it had across the U.S. In Smitherman’s essay “From Ghetto Lady to Critical Linguist we are shown a number of examples where this discrimination directly affected her life as she was growing up in various areas of the U.S. Being born in the south, she was unaware of her accent until it was pointed by her new teachers in the north. Simply because of her dialect, she was held back in her new schools. I found it particularly interesting that in order to get around this handicap Smitherman just stopped talking in class altogether. It is hard to imagine that an approach like that would be effective in primary school today, where such an emphasis is placed on developing the speaking patterns of the youth. When I was in elementary school we had a new student move to Midland from Brazil. He didn’t speak a word of English when he started, but through standardized testing he was placed in the same grade as he would have been back in Brazil. You could tell that he was scared the first day coming in, but the teacher did her best to accommodate him and make him feel welcome. The next day he already had a tutor with him trying to teach him some English so that he could understand all the aspects of the class. It was interesting to me that while trying to learn Standard English Smitherman forced herself to memorize specific pronunciations and phrases to try and show a fluency in the dialect. After a few months of tutoring, our new friend from Brazil used to do the exact same thing. He would often try to talk about McDonalds or mention the name of a cartoon show in an attempt to fit in with us. I understand that a lot has changed since the time when Smitherman went through school, but it is amazing to me that an American student speaking an English dialect would be given more grief in school than a foreigner who didn’t even know what English was. The city in which i come from was not a very diverse place, and I suppose I never realized how easy it was to judge someone solely on the way they speak until I met such an