Making Sense

Blog 1: As composition teachers, how should we make sense of the successes and failures of our dialect speakers, our new immigrants, and our immigrant heritage students? What factors (home, school, community, etc) might promote success and failure? And how as teachers can we foster success?

I think as composition instructors we need to acknowledge the different types of students we have in our classrooms. As Ogbu points out, we may have voluntary as well as involuntary students in class. Voluntary minorities are immigrant minorities that have moved to the United States of their own free will looking for better opportunities. Voluntary minorities may have trouble adjusting to American schools, but do not experience these difficulties long term. On the other hand involuntary minorities are minorities that have been conquered, colonized or enslaved. They are not necessarily in America of their own free will. These minorities feel as though they are forced to assimilate into the United States. Some involuntary minorities are usually less economically successful as voluntary minorities and could experience more cultural and language difficulties. Composition teachers need to understand that involuntary minorities may not perform as well in school due to these factors. Communication between teachers and involuntary minority students and their parents about these incompatible beliefs may give the students a better chance of acquire Standard English.  

Composition instructors also need to be aware that speakers of different dialects other than Standard English may be receiving mixed messages and tension from both their families and communities regarding use of Standard English. Some people within other dialect communities such as African American Vernacular English view school as an assimilating force that tries to civilize speakers of ‘Slang English’ and strip their identity. Composition teachers must also take into consideration that the parents of dialect speakers may not be willing or able to teach their children standard English at home due to the communities view of the dialect.

Despite how intrinsically motivated our new immigrants may be they can become frustrated when the system does not assist them in their transition into English language schools. As educators we need to strive to make sure we are serving all of our students as best we can by making sure ESL students have opportunities to communicate in the target language and are not segregated from contact with mainstream students.  A way of helping our lower level new immigrant students who are still acquiring English is to make sure we have opportunities for group work and meaningful learning in our classes. Again, teachers must consider the fact that parents may need additional help in communicating with faculty and administrators about the academic needs and abilities of their children. As teachers we can set the bar higher for all of our students regardless of their backgrounds so they have the opportunity to learn rather than just being put in remedial classes. And most of all composition teachers have to be careful that our ESL students do not get stuck in what Veldez calls, “The ESL getto” where they do not have the opportunity for success at both transitioning into our schools and improving their English.