LINGUIST List 24.28
Mon Jan 07 2013
Diss: Discourse Analysis/ General Ling/ Lang Acq/ Socioling: Hallett: 'African American English in Urban Education...'
Editor for this issue: Lili Xia
<lxialinguistlist.org>
Date: 27-Dec-2012
From: Jill Hallett <jillh
illinois.edu>
Subject: African American English in Urban Education: A multimethodological approach to understanding classroom discourse strategies
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Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2012
Author: Jill M. Hallett
Dissertation Title: African American English in Urban Education: A multimethodological approach to understanding classroom discourse strategies
Dissertation URL:
http://www.academia.edu/2332454/AFRICAN_AMERICAN_ENGLISH_IN_URBAN_EDUCATION
Linguistic Field(s):
Discourse Analysis
General Linguistics
Language Acquisition
Sociolinguistics
Dissertation Director:
Dennis Baron
Dissertation Abstract:
Discrepancies between “home English” and “school English” for urban studentshave been addressed for decades by a number of scholars in the fields oflinguistics, education, and sociology (Baratz 1969, Baugh 1995, Charity et al2004, Alim 2009, Edwards 2010). Those students who speak prestige varietiesof English tend to do better in school settings, in which the teacher’s language isthat of the mainstream middle class.
Charity Hudley and Mallinson (2011: 77) note, “[e]ducators and students whocome from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds may be unaware of,confused by, or ill equipped to understand each other’s linguistic and culturalbehaviors.” Some researchers have examined teachers’ contrastive analysis ofnon-prestige varieties of English with that of the prestige variety (Pandey 2000,Wheeler and Swords 2006), but rarely has the teachers’ acquisition of non-
prestige forms been examined in any form (a notable exception is Fogel and Ehri2006). Furthermore, no study to date has taken a multimethodological approachto understanding both student and teacher discourse strategies in the urbanclassroom.
This study presents the linguistic situation in one Chicago high school. Anethnographic assessment situates language use among students and teachersin the classroom. A written translation task assesses teachers’ knowledge ofnon-prestige dialects (Siegel 1999) at the beginning of the school year, and iscompared to recorded language use in authentic classroom interaction, includingstudent and teacher use of African American English. Interviews add depth tothe study by connecting teacher-to-student discourse to rapport-buildingstrategies. Student questionnaires round out the study by providing feedback onteachers’ language strategies and their rapport-building effects.
Through this micro- and macro-level methodology, a multifaceted picture ofteachers’ and students’ language strategies is presented. The teachers’ ability toaccommodate to students’ dialects is reflected in the written task, while actualaccommodation and rapport-building is examined through discourse analysisand interviews. The teacher who accommodates to students’ language haspotential to defuse the linguistic tension apparent in the mainstream urbanAmerican classroom, with the further possibility for discussion, demystification,and deconstruction of language ideologies and linguistic identities inherent in themakeup of urban societies.
Page Updated: 07-Jan-2013