Hi Eduard,

Thanks for being such an active member of the list! I've been reading your 
comments with interest for a while, but I mostly lurk due to being busy. I 
think that people have different ideas of what is meant by code mixing or 
code switching. I think if I had a few minutes to talk to you or Bill Cosby, 
you would applaud my approach to my students who struggle with Standard 
English and feel constantly put down when they speak naturally and 
spontaneously.

My students are teaching me their native dialect. They are delighted to 
correct me and drill me, so that I can use the structures naturally without 
sounding "foreign." We discuss the Standard equivalent to the form they use. 
They absolutely love it when I ask them if I'm using it "correctly" or 
saying it "right" as I practice their dialect forms.  They have a whole new 
approach now, and I feel as if a weight has been lifted off them. Deep down 
inside they know that native dialect is not "wrong, or bad" but that's all 
they've ever heard. They are well aware of the power and usefulness of the 
Standard dialect. I teach the Standard Dialect. I also teach them French, 
Spanish and Italian words as well as sign language. I want them to be 
excited about differences and make connections.

I tell them that some people will accuse me of teaching them that the 
Standard Dialect is not important and that they don't have to learn it to 
succeed. I make sure they understand that I am not saying that in any form. 
They have to repeat back to me what I AM saying. They love me for not 
bashing them about their native language. They love me for wanting to learn 
it and having fun while they laugh at my ineptness. I love them for how 
ready they are to forgive past teachers for trashing their native dialects. 
I witnessed this when I was in school and I witnessed it recently at the 
school where I teach.

I think we're on the same side, but I think they is a big misunderstanding 
of what is going on. I think Rebecca Wheeler's work is brilliant, and I am 
inspired to use her techniques. Let me know if this makes any sense to you.

Christine



--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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----Original Message Follows----
From: "Eduard C. Hanganu" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar              
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Code Mixing
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 09:22:34 -0500

To all:

Code mixing in the classroom is indeed a very efficient way to hold
back the social and economic development of the African-Americans or
other ethnic groups in this country. It is indeed a discrimination
matter, and its effect can be comparable to the damage welfare has
caused to the African-Americans, Hispanics and other people in this
country. Bill Cosby knows is very well, and this is why he has been
lashing against this suble discrimination which bears the pretense of
helping minorities.

Why should African Americans be helped to move as fast as they could
in order to obtain a good knowledge of Standard English, do well in
school, and get good jobs, when they can be sabotaged through code
mixing? Using a "research article" to prove that code mixing works in
the classroom is just the same as using Hillocks article to prove
that grammar causes brain damage to students and does not help in any
way in developing better writing in students.

The 13 years I spent in Queens, and my undergraduate and graduate
research in language acquisition and language learning have taught me
that the best way for students to learn a dialect or a language is
through immersion. I saw again and again children of Eastern European
background (Russian, Polish, Check, Romanian, Yugoslavian), come to
New York with absolutely no knowledge of English and becoming fluent
in Standard English after one, at most two years, of immersion in the
public school Standard English. The English teachers, who knew only
their mother tongues, could not switch or mix code on these foreign
students, but this fact did not deter them from training the students
to speak fluent English in record time. I can repeat the same story
for the thousands of Haitian, Dominican, Columbian,Brazilian, and
other Hispanic children who came to New York with their monolingual
parents.

We keep talking about English dialect codes in this country without
little understanding of the social, political, and economic power the
Standard American Dialect has in the lives of the people who live
here. Languages and dialects can make or break countries or cause
civil wars, can destroy the lives of people ( remember what happened
to those who spoke German or Japanese in the United States during the
second world war), can hold people back socially, economically and
politically, and can create welfare societies. For those who are not
sure of the power that dialects and languages can have on people I
recommend "Language and Social Context" edited by Giglioli, and other
books on the subject.

What children of any ethnic background who live in this country need
in order to become successful in school and in society is a good
knowledge of Standard American English which should be obtained
through Standard Dialect immersion, not code mixing. This is the
approach which will put an end to language, social, and economic
discrimination in the United States. If we are truly against
discrimination, we should leave language welfare programs behind us.


Eduard

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