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 [log in to unmask] ----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 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/