Hi Y'all,

When I shared Wheeler and Swords work with my community college students, 
almost the entire class responded positively. They wrote response papers 
about Wheeler and Swords research on the contrastive approach to grammar. My 
students seemed truly excited, interested, relieved and happy to learn that 
some educators advocate respect for dialiect diversity. Oh and incidentally 
they seemed more responsive to grammar lessons and learned Standard Forms 
more readily. DUH!

The African American students who spoke AAVE and the students from Downeast 
who spoke the "Hoi Toider" Brogue were especially touched by my appreciation 
for the beauty and poetry and yes, the rules of their dialects.

I left my part time job at the community college in Morehead City, North 
Carolina to work full time at a nearby wilderness camp for at-risk youth. 
One of my students (AAVE) used "turnt" for "turned."  When another kid 
laughed, I pointed out "Burnt" is a from of "burned." and we talked about 
why we laugh at difference (language, appearance, etc).

On another occasion at camp, one of my co-workers (a counselor, not a 
teacher) loudly corrected a student during a meal conversation who said.."I 
ain't got no...."  I jumped in a commented on the need to respect difference 
in dialect. I got a strange look. I don't know if anyone at the camp is on 
my wave length at all, but I must speak my beliefs.

My students let me know over and over that this approach gives them 
confirmation about their linguistic competence. In addition to English, I 
teach sign language, Spanish, French, and they want more. They teach me 
their dialect and we all laugh at my mono-dialectalism compared to their 
bi-dialectalism. I can't teach grammar or writing any other way. It just 
seems too boring and too mean to put out that my students can't speak 
English, or that their speech communities are inferior. I stress over and 
over again the importance of learning Standard English. In fact, I insist 
that they understand that I am NOT suggesting in any way that they don't 
need Standard English in today's world.

Maybe I'm deluded. Maybe I'll get in trouble someday. Maybe I'm in the 
minority, but I have a following out there. I know I'm just passing on the 
great ideas that others have put forth, and I don't take credit for 
originality here. It just feels right. The kids can see that language is fun 
for me.

-

Christine Reintjes Martin
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