The second edition of Dialects in schools and communities is a “reconsidered and expanded … updated report of the state of language variation and education in the United States” (p. ix). The volume incorporates recent scholarship on dialects and language variation that resulted partially from the conversation provoked by the initial publication of this classic nearly a decade ago. Perhaps more relevant now than when initially published owing to the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act and the assessment era’s de facto policy of upholding a standard English, the book offers educators tangible means, in the form of instructional techniques, strategies, and even lessons, to support students who speak a stigmatized dialect of English.
The authors begin their argument by asserting that everyone speaks a dialect of a language, yet it is the social and political positioning of each dialect within groups that makes this overt or inconspicuous depending on whether one belongs to the dominant group or not. The social construction of language within speech communities is what hierarchizes the status of dialects, as opposed to the innate linguistic merit of the language variety.
The theme that language status and prestige are constructed by power relationships is the spine of the work. Its heart, though, is the social justice position that dialect difference is not deficit but simply difference. The authors take on the deficit position “that speakers of dialects with vernacular forms have a handicap – socially and cognitively – because the dialects are illogical, sloppy or just bad grammar” (p. 17). By their describing variations in linguistic systems including phonology, grammar, and vocabulary that are dependent upon social, historical, geographic, and political factors, a more comprehensive understanding of language variety in America and its schools begins to form in the opening chapters.
Chapter 3 more directly shifts the focus to the classroom by first discussing elements of social interaction. Differences in language rituals, modes of conversational politeness and figurative language use between speakers of dialects can cause problems in the social crucible of the classroom. How teachers respond to the disconnect between home and school speech communities is a critical point for the authors and, according to them, where the most progress and learning can occur. This idea is more fully formed in chapters 5, 6, and 7, which are concerned with pedagogical practices and are largely dependent on a teacher’s expert understanding of language difference and ability to exploit it.
The crux of the book is, strangely, at the beginning of chapter 5, entitled “Oral language instruction.” The discussion would have flowed more logically if included in chapter 4, which reflects on the perceptions of language standards whether perpetuated through assessment or at the tangled intersection of language and learning disability. Nonetheless, the opening 10 pages are an exceedingly cogent and well-articulated synthesis of the reconciliation of vernacular dialect and social reality and its ramifications for policy programs and curriculum. The conclusion reached is that “resolving the Standard English debate involves balancing the inevitability of dialect diversity, the benefits of language standardization and the sociopolitical realities that lead to negative evaluations of nonstandardness and vernacular speaking groups.” Key to this balance is the level of an individual’s motivation and desire to exercise language choice.
Dialects in schools and communities is just as relevant now as it was on its initial publication and is a required read for any decision maker in a multilingual or multidialectical classroom.
