Following our exciting exploration of our own background knowledge as an introduction to dialect, I decided to capitalize on the class’s enthusiasm by assigning a rare extra credit opportunity--an extension of our conversation using a New York Times article with the rather dire title of “The Sound of Philadelphia Fades Out.” The article discusses the findings of a recent University of Pennsylvania study, asserting that the Philadelphia dialect is shrinking, as an increasing number of transplants has the everyday speech of Philadelphians trending toward a more standardized mid-Atlantic dialect, and changing, as the speech trends of native Philadelphians shift with a new generation of speakers. This rare extra credit opportunity, on an otherwise homework-free night from me, was to read the article, and respond to the question: “Why is it important to recognize and preserve different dialects?” (I’ve since been advised to remove the latent value judgement from my question, instead asking “Is it important…” but I don’t think this significantly affected student responses).
It was very exciting to see the thoughtfulness, as well as the urgency, behind my students’ responses. A prominent theme in their reflections picked up on themes from our discussion in class: associating dialect with other aspects of individual identity and recognizing it as something precious and deserving of respect:
It important to recognize different dialects because it show the world about different way people of different region communicate. The dialects they use are unique in their culture, it is like the identity of the person [ELL respondent]
It is important to recognize and preserve different dialects because dialects show your culture, background and your family history.
Others urgently grappled with the potential tragedy of a lost dialect:
It is important to recognize and preserve different dialects because without the dialect, it is like the state has lost their identity and culture… The article also stated ‘... when an accent goes silent, so do its speakers.’ This is very true because it feels like you don’t really know state and its culture as much. [ELL respondent]
... these specific dialects can show one’s personality and identity, historical background, and will simply go away if we stopped using them.
One student, to my delight, expressed a sincere fascination and appreciation of this study, recognizing the value in a previously unexamined area of his life (his response was submitted electronically, so there are a few typos in the excerpt that follows):
It was important to preserve and recognize different dialects because it show the history or person they could be.I my opinion if you decide to forget about an entire dialect you really saying that you are forgetting an entire group of people's background,personality, and overall lifestyles by simply the way they peek.. Dialects are beautiful it really shows what kind of person who you really are and you are not afraid to show it.
One student, through their examination of dialect, made a valuable realization regarding subjectivity, expressing a higher order abstract understanding at the heart of our conversations surrounding dialect and our reading and interpretation of Hughes’s “Thank You, Ma’am:”
To be aware of different dialects is important because you’re being exposed to different culture and if you’re not apart of that culture, you shouldn’t expect those people to speak, look or wear anything you do. There is not just one way to speak or say words.
I was very pleased with the thought within these responses, so before turning back to the text for the period, I thought I’d posit the article back to the class at large, mostly in an attempt to garner additional interest and maybe convince a few more students to read it (only about 5-7 students in each class completed the extra credit assignment). This whim turned out to be an extremely pedagogically valuable decision. Below are my reflection notes, jotted down at the end of the lesson (so forgive the various typos and generally poor writing):
Kind of on a whim I added a quick debrief of the NYT article on dialect and WOW it turned out to be one of the most rigorous discussions of the year. After having a student who read the article quickly summarize it, I opened up discussion with the question: “How does it make you feel to hear about a dialect ‘fading away?’” Lots of students responded “Sad!” in chorus. This I interrogated that idea. They were driving at points about the way you speaking being a part of who you are. The conversation coalesced around ideas of culture and history--your background and membership to various cultural groups are captured in the way you speak. They felt like the loss of a dialect was a kind of loss of your past. I connected this with our conversation about dialect and stigma. How people can judge people based on preconceived notions about their speech. This provided a valuable springboard into “Thank You, M’am” and Hughes’s conscious (& controversial) decision to capture a working class black dialect as a way to more richly capture the identity of his characters.
This quick debrief allowed the students who read the article to share their knowledge with the rest of the class and engage them in the dialogue of their independent reflection. We had a very engaging discussion that synthesized the background knowledge we activated in the previous lesson and the socio-cultural context of “Thank You, Ma’am” to achieve a higher-level understanding of Hughes’s decision to capture the realistic speech of his characters in dialect. By approaching this concept of dialect from two texts and personal experience, students were able to construct a cohesive theoretical understanding of dialect and its value, which proved transferrable--lending itself to interpretation of multiple texts and personal experience. These are exactly the kinds of rigorous, durable interpretive skills I hope to build in my class, with which students can make sense of both the various texts they encounter in their lives and their day-to-day experiences.