Regional variation Do you speak American?

Review What is discourse? What is a schema? Script?

Standard English Is English the standard language in America? Does America have a standard variety of English? How would you categorize it? Can you teach it?

Standard English So far, we have been discussing an “idealized” form of English. This form may not truly exist. The closest measure of standard English can be found in grammar books and on news broadcasts.

Accent vs. Dialect Accent – the variation of sounds among different regions and groups of people. “People from New York talk funny.” “People from the South sound stupid.” Everyone has an accent.

Dialect The variations in grammar and vocabulary among different groups of people. Often, dialect and accent go hand in hand. Pop – midwestYouse – Irish Soda – FloridaY’all – the South Coke – GeorgiaYou guys – the North

Final Note on Dialects Dialects can be a cause of stereotyping. Examples? Dialects can be a source of social identity.

When languages meet When two speakers of different languages are forced to interact (trade, colonization, etc), they must communicate. The language that is developed from their interaction is called a pidgin. Pidgins – no grammatical morphology and relatively limited vocabulary. There are no inflectional morphemes, only functional morphemes.

Creoles Creoles are evolved pidgins, blended from two languages. Children grow up speaking a pidgin and it eventually becomes a creole. Children create grammar structures and rules. Ex: Jamaica = English creole, Haiti = French creole.

Diglossia A situation where two distinct languages are common in one country. Ex: English & French in Canada Any other examples? Usually one is considered low (for everyday conversation) and one is high (for more important things: gov., business, etc). Do any diglossias exist in America?

Let’s talk about America Do you consider America a bilingual or monolingual country? Approximately 2,000 languages are spoken in Florida. English is the main language of 215 million people (82.1%) Spanish is the main language of 28 million people (10.17%) In the world, Chinese (2 million+), French (1.6 million), German (1.4 million) What does that mean to teachers?

What does this mean to you? Worldwide, there are 450 million native English speakers (2006) BUT.. There are over 1 billion ESL speakers (mostly in China and India). There are more ESL speakers in India than the entire population of the UK.

Let’s debate English is not the official language of the U.S., but some insist that it should be. What are the arguments for and against the ‘English-Only Movement’? What does ‘English-Only’ mean for education?