1. Reframing “Success” in Literacy through Language Diversity Awareness
VATE 2016, Hampton, VA
Megan Weaver
Old Dominion University
Kim Fahle
Virginia Wesleyan College

2. Today’s Workshop Outline Goal Reflective Writing
Discussions of Writing
Linguistic Terminology
Curricula Demonstrations
Q & A
Examine our own linguistic knowledge and language experiences and showcase curricula resources regarding language diversity awareness.

3. Reflective Writing
Briefly respond to the following questions (bullets and phrases!)
How would you describe the sound, the feel, the taste, the look, and the scent of your language?
What expectations do you have regarding successful language use in students’ work?
How have you come to value these expectations?

4. What do we do with our experiences?
Recognize our language use impacts our identity and self-perception as speakers and teachers.
Recognize and examine our linguistic value sets.
Recognize, acknowledge, and encourage our students’ language identities.
Develop a critical consciousness (Freire) on “how language contributes to the domination of some people by others” (Fairclough, 1989).

5. Linguistic Terminology
Dialect
Accent
Variety of a language systematically different from other varieties of the same language in structural or lexical features
Systematic phonological variation among dialects (Curzan & Adams, 2012)

6. Linguistic Terminology
Standardized English
Non-Standardized Englishes
Widely accepted
Uniform spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary
“educated speech”
Contextually accepted
Systematic grammatical and lexical features
Some examples: Appalachian English, African American English, Chicano English

7. Linguistic Terminology
Prescriptivism
Descriptivism
Prescribes language use
What should language in use look like, sound like, feel like?
Style books
Describes language use
What does language in use look like, sound like, feel like?

8. Language Ideology
Language Ideologies “shared bodies of commonsense notions about the nature of language in the world” (Rumsey, 1990, p. 346) Standard Language Ideology preference for the idealized spoken and written language of the dominant class (Lippi-Green, 2012)

9. How Does LI Affect Students?

10. Language Diversity Awareness Activities

11. Word Crimes Activity Word Crimes Video Grammar Girl Podcast Response
Response Questions:
Do you agree with Grammar Girl? Why or why not?
Describe a time where you felt like you were criticized or made fun of because of language errors. How did that experience make you feel?
Do you have any language pet peeves? Why do you think they bother you so much?

12. Grammar Girl Key Quotations
But just as I’m thinking “Maybe I could love this,” he heads back into negative territory, beating on how he wants to kill people who use literally to mean “figuratively,” and generally insulting people. This is where he completely loses me:
You write like a spastic.
I hate these word crimes. ..
Get out of the gene pool.
Try your best to not drool.
Perhaps the most troubling thing for me is seeing teachers who say they are going to use this in class because kids will find it funny and it will make them care about grammar. The entire ending of the video is putting down people who have trouble writing. The video says it’s OK to call people who can’t spell morons, droolers, spastics, and mouth breathers. 
The bottom line is that I don’t believe in word crimes, and I don’t believe in encouraging people to think about language that way. 

13. Student Responses-Developmental Writing
“I agree with what Grammar Girl said. Just because someone isn't the best writer doesn't mean that you should make fun of them for that. Nobody in life is perfect. It's actually messed up that this video makes fun of people for not knowing how to write.” “I totally agree with Grammar Girl's opinion on this video. Weird Al's "Word Crimes" video was very negative in many ways. He talked about how people look or sound when they make grammar mistakes which is fine but the way he did it made him look very immature and childish. Weird Al displayed his lack of respect for people who have grammatical problems… I think he needs to find a better way to get his message across and instead of putting people down, he should start to encourage them in the best possible way.”

14. Student Response-Developmental Writing
“I truly thought the [Weird Al] video had an interesting animation to it but was really disrespectful to those who are corrected about their grammar everyday. In my case I am one of those who get corrected about my use of grammar quite often and I don't think that I should be laughed at and called names just for making a grammar mistake. Back in high school I was bashed by my teacher about the use of my grammar in my essays. I was embarrassed in front of the entire class, I fell that it is not fair to those who are actually trying to make a difference in their writing or grammar. Even though Weird Al's video "Word Crimes" is a parody, there are actually people out there who are upset and possibly feel embarrassed too.”

15. Student Response-Traditional FYC
“I thought his video was funny, I didn't think to much into it. I pay attention to my grammar when I'm writing so i didn't take his post too seriously. I feel as if Grammar Girl kind of took it too sensitively. I see what she is saying, but i don't think he meant to hurt peoples feelings. I see where she is coming from when she says some people can't help it if they don't have great grammar. They shouldn't be called stupid, but then again there are people who do it because they are lazy. I know many people i went to school with that have the same education and type with numbers and misused words on purpose.”

16. Student Response-Traditional FYC
“I’ve always kinda liked Weird Al’s songs so I thought it was clever and interesting. The one feeling I did have after listening to it was the thought about how often I make the mentioned mistakes. Grammar Girls response did change my view on the song, but at the same time it didn’t. It did change my mind about the song in the way that it called out improper english for dumb and stupid people. I agree with her saying that everyone has their own writing style and who is Weird Al a song writer to call people out on it. At the same time the other half of me was thinking its just a song. There are a lot of songs out there that are saying a lot worse things.”

17. Wrap Up
Thank you for your participation! Resources Handout 0n-dI3QXZ4wyX3OOQ3fM9A/edit?usp=sharing Contact Info: Final Questions or Comments?