Liberation in Language

Throughout the past several weeks in class, there has been much controversy over how English courses should be designed and have effective learning objectives for students. After openly discussing this issue in class with my peers, it was ultimately hard to make a decision on how an English class should be delegated. Should students be given the opportunity to exercise their own voice in their work or should students be limited to only academic English? That is something we constantly had to ask ourselves.

Ultimately, I am a huge advocate for educators shifting the dynamics of their syllabi so their students are able to read, write, and think in the “language” they find the most comfortable. I strongly believe when students are learning at their least restrictive environment (or at their most basic, comfort level), they are going to thrive as young pupils in their education. I feel that each English course needs to be catered to fit the needs of the students (which should apply to any course really) however, English is one of those universal subjects that can be applied anywhere inside or outside of the nation. I do not believe English is a subject that should be measured at the same level, nationally. The demographics varying from coast to coast and it people who are less comfortable reading and writing in standard English will be put at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts.

Once students are finally able to use their own voice in the work they create, they are more likely to be engaged in the subject matter and improve their performance levels.

I personally think that English classes need to be transformed so that they incorporate values from both sides of the argument, much like the ones in the articles SRTOL and Zorn’s “Counter-argument to SRTOL.” When educators find a healthy medium in using both sets of viewpoints, students will be exposed to classroom settings that promote different dialects to be learned and used. With this educational shift in the classrooms, students are challenged with having to learn the rules and applications of not only formal English but other forms of English that are used by the students. And to also know when and where is it appropriate to use certain dialect(s) in different environments.

I think that English is not anything like mathematics at all when it comes to being just black and white - with English there is such a large grey spectrum where many people speak different forms of English that vary from person to person based off experience and culture. When English is altered to encourage students and teachers to use more than just the standard form of English, it provides opportunity to learn about many other dialects of the same language and realize that each has specific rules that need to be followed as well. Ultimately by making it more like this, students are going to be better evolved in their English because they are going to be able to communicate better with others in different situations.