When my English students leave my class at the community college, they know
more about linguistics than a lot of English teachers. They know that all
dialects are rule governed and inherently equal. They know that the Standard
is the language of power and mastery of this dialect is very important.
(They all knew that anyway!) They feel good about their native dialect. They
are proud of being bi-dialectical  and of being able to codeswitch.

I make them repeat back to me that I am not telling them that learning
standard English is not necessary or important. They know that people tend
to misunderstand this.

Many of my black students are thrilled to learn that what AAVE stands for.
One student said, "WOW! There's a name for my dialect." Many just called it
slang. I explain that term also.

So far, I have only had one student who seemed upset by my lessons on
dialect awareness. He had a hard time with the term "grammar rules" as it
applied to spoken dialects that varied from the standard. When I replaced
"grammar rules" with patterns, he was fine. By the end, I think he realized
that grammar rules can exist outside of certain types of textbooks.

--

Christine Reintjes Martin
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