by Bryan Murray and Nathaniel Johns
How do people think about language? Do people agree that all languages, and dialects of certain languages are treated equally? In an attempt to answer these loaded questions, we interviewed a group of twenty Swarthmore College students to see how they perceive of language at home and abroad.
Keywords
- Standard Language: “Taught in schools and used in print and broadcast media” (Genetti 13).
- Speech Community: “A group of people who share a common language or dialect and cultural practices” (Genetti 7).
- Communicative Competence: “Usually refers to the communicative knowledge and skills shared by a speech community, but these (like all aspects of culture) reside variably in its individual members” (Saville-Troike 21).
- Prescriptive language/prescriptivism: “The socially embedded notion of the "correct" or "proper" ways to use a language” (Language Files 14).
Students Speak Up.
“When I hear about things like dialect persecution in the news it really upsets me,” noted Matt, a Junior linguistics minor at Swarthmore College citing a recent story regarding the ideologically empowered misunderstanding of an African American man’s dialect that resulted in the barring of his constitutional right of council during an arrest. Matt was referring to African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The AAVE dialect of English is seen by many as an incomplete way to communicate.
Stories like this are what troubled Swarthmore students like Matt, whom we interviewed.
Students at “Swat”--the local nickname for the College, have specific perceptions of language that impact the way they use it and understand its implications. Testimony of the interviewed students reflects the idea that upbringing in various linguistic and cultural environments (also known as speech communities) can result in these perceptions. The testimonies exhibit how their perceptions are also challenged by their participation in study abroad programs and their transition to the Swarthmore Community.
The perceptions of the group are shown through statements regarding language ideology and communicative competence abroad. The group also shares the same negative view of linguistic inequality (the idea that speakers are unequal or languages are used unequally) as well as the idea that different environments shape this inequality.
Stories like this are what troubled Swarthmore students like Matt, whom we interviewed.
Students at “Swat”--the local nickname for the College, have specific perceptions of language that impact the way they use it and understand its implications. Testimony of the interviewed students reflects the idea that upbringing in various linguistic and cultural environments (also known as speech communities) can result in these perceptions. The testimonies exhibit how their perceptions are also challenged by their participation in study abroad programs and their transition to the Swarthmore Community.
The perceptions of the group are shown through statements regarding language ideology and communicative competence abroad. The group also shares the same negative view of linguistic inequality (the idea that speakers are unequal or languages are used unequally) as well as the idea that different environments shape this inequality.
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