Solution Proposal Response

Introduction/Background On the issue of Students Rights to Their Own Language as a whole I feel as if we decided to add language diversity to the classroom it would better our society but, there would be some positive and negative issues if the change was to occur. The whole idea of language diversity is a big controversy because of the many ideals that could happen if there was a change from Standard English to various dialects. I feel as if we do decide to add a variety of language to a society as whole would be better because there would be more diversity and the already strong cultural boundaries would be torn down a little. If we did decide to diversify language within the classroom we would have to take many steps and make some changes so the newly installed dialects could fit inside a teachers lesson plan. Also I feel as if I should speak about how it will be positive and negative. I feel so strongly on this issue because I feel like I can relate to the whole situation and just because someone doesnt speak a specific language or talks a certain way they should not be treated any different or isolated from when it comes to learning other languages within the classroom. I can recount a lot of experiences within my advanced placement English class in high school where because I didnt speak a certain way I was thought to be illiterate or not being capable of doing the work because of the certain context I put words in different situations. Just because people speak a certain way that doesnt mean that there illiterate or ignorant its just that its what there used to being around. With my ideas in mind I hope to diversify the classrooms and let every culture express themselves within the classroom setting. My target audience is the 9th grade. Literature Review

With these steps in mind I feel as if the articles I have chosen can somewhat help implement these plans or at least help make a layout of the plan to diversify the classroom. Within my first article I Ain't Thinkin' 'Bout No The Development of Two Parallel Diversity-Related Case Studies for Higher Education It speaks about changing the classroom structure as a whole an instead of focusing on individual students you focus on group work and team-building activities. Students who engage with other backgrounds in team-work activates have a better chance of social networking and be able to have better connections because they are able to diversify themselves. I feel like this helps my idea because in order for the classroom to diversify you have to get the students acquainted and used to learning with each other so it will be easier for them to work together. If students work together diversifying will be easier because they will want to work to help each other succeed. My second article Tracking and High School English Learners: Limiting Opportunity to Learn it speaks about why language is so crucial and that even though English is a strong dialect around the world it is still important to learn about other dialects, cultures, and heritages. I feel like this helps my overall plan because this whole article could be used to help to explain to students why language diversity is so important. If you explain the overall concept and how crucial language is to society it might make students eager to learn more about different languages. This article could also help teachers as well because it talks about how English learners had trouble learning the language and they felt neglected and unequal to everyone else within the classroom. This idea may help motivate teachers because it is their job to help students learn and seeing students struggle should be all the motivation they need to help push and help the issue of language diversity. Within my third article Evaluating Dialect in Discourse: Teachers' and Teenagers' Responses to Young English Speakers in Wales it correlates with the ideas of my second article. Within the article it discusses how students from

the Wale region had begun to learn English and felt proud about the accomplishment. So the Wale students tell stories in English. The stories are then recorded and given to teachers and students to listen and evaluate how English affected the community. Learning the English language helped this culture mentally and emotionally because with the learning of a new language they not only educated themselves but gained a new sense of confidence because of the things they had learned. As stated before this relates to my second article because it could help motivate students to learn and maybe even help them gain confidence. Within my fourth article Assessment Accommodations for English Language Learners: Implications for Policy-Based Empirical Research It talks about how when it comes to tests for language and dialect certain accommodations should be used for students whose home language is not English. It speaks about how one specific assessment is not fair to test an English learners knowledge about the subject and how different approaches may be used to help students learn. I feel as if this is one of the strongest articles that could help the classroom because it could help teachers plan out tests and lesson plans to accommodate the whole classroom so it will be easier for everyone to learn. The goal is to help every student and if every student feels at home within the classroom and actually welcomed within the classroom they will want to learn. Other articles included Critical Thoughts on Teaching Standard English which mainly focuses about how English is the main language used within a work setting and around the world. This article made me think if one specific language can be so powerful why not teach all languages and be more educated about all cultures. The Cambridge article was another article that showed the importance of Standard English because it talked about how it was used in everyday life which again also made me think about how much better we could be as society if we incorporated everybodys cultures and dialects. In Rosina Lippi-Greens article Standard language ideology and discriminatory pretext in the
courts she tells the story of Sulochana Mandhare. Sulochana, a native of India, decided she wanted to

continue her education in the English language. She traveled to the United States to pursue her masters degree. Although she already had degrees in Liberal Arts and in Education, she wanted to do more for herself. In 1979 she became a certified librarian and worked as a school librarian for kindergarten through second grade. She then was released from her job, given the reason that she did not speak English well enough and it was hard for the students to understand. Mandare filed a lawsuit that she first won, but then was overturned by a final decision to rule in the schools favor. (Lippi-Green) Things like this shouldnt be happening in our country. In the article, Assessing English Language- Learning Achievement it reviews the major trends and issues regarding the English language learning students (ELLS). The assessments serve a double purpose- to construct relevant or irrelevant variance, not to assess English language skills. The article states the validation of an assessment is a historical and dialectical process. Performance evidence of an assessment is examined over time this is a country that was built on the idea of allowing immigrants into our country to find a home with peace and freedom. Blaus theory is one of the most influential theories on this issue, and when the hypothesis was studied, like expected, it was shown that immigrants English proficiency was affected negatively by group size and segregation. No matter how many articles are posted, or how many tests are done, it will always show that non Standard English speakers will be looked as being less than compared to a well educated, English speaker until we choose to make a difference. The choice is up to the school systems and what they will allow.

Solution Proposal I am going to try and change the 9th grade high school setting to better fit all students of various languages and dialects because I feel as if this is a good time to propose these ideas. The children are still at a very young age and at this specific period time it would be great to be able

to mold and shape them into people who appreciate and understand many different languages and cultures because if they start early it will be easier for them in the long run. Every classroom is a cultural community reflective of the disciplines and perspectives studied the authors, the students, and the professor. One can argue that successful learning requires an intercultural approach where students are responsible for listening to understand both the perspectives of others and for understanding their own perspectives and how they acquired them. Students can come to understand that learning is about the generation, mutual reflection, critiquing, expanding of ideas and concepts, and that this is most effectively done in a collaborative and noncompetitive environment. In order for students to properly learn about the different dialects within the classroom there should be steps taken by the teacher before the first day of class. I feel as if a meeting should be held between the teacher and the parent, in which the teacher first introduces the ideas of the sensitive issue of different dialects within the classroom. Before this begins though teachers would have to take classes to be able to understand how they could communicate to students and parents whose home language is not English. This training could include things such as English, Spanish, and other different language courses so the teacher could learn all about whatever specific dialect they would teach within the classroom. Afterwards they would go through oral training where they would incorporate more than one dialect into a lesson plan and present it to another group of teachers who have undergone the same training to see if they understand what they have learned and are able to teach to others without too much difficulty. Once the training is complete the teachers will have the meetings that were discussed earlier and within the meetings the teacher should ask questions, such as what can we learn about your culture to help us be as respectful as possible or what language or languages does your family speak? Simple things like this can help spark interest because parents

will feel like youre getting them involved in turn they will want their students to get involved because it is something positive. Once the whole parent meeting has concluded and once the teacher actually starts the teaching within the classroom they should try to make all the students feel comfortable within the class and try to involve all dialects. A classroom can be a strange environment to parents whose primary language is not English. Some parents feel the need to be part of the system that socializes their children, but they're unable to bridge the language barrier. Others view education as their path to success and want their children to do well, but they feel uncertain about a language and culture that's different from their own. All these things put nonEnglish speaking parents at a real disadvantage. Try to establish a relationship of equality and try to show that one dialect or language is not superior to another. Once the ideas and concepts of different dialects are accepted within the classroom it will be better for all because again cultural boundaries would be broken and cultural heritage would be learned about every language not just one specific dialect. After all this is completed and the teacher has finally started trying to teach language diversity they should try many different activities to engage the whole classroom and make sure that everyone is involved. For example if a teacher is speaking about English teachers should use culturally diverse literature whenever possible. By integrating culturally diverse literature into class lessons, teachers can ensure that all students are afforded the opportunity to see their culture represented within literary text. Seeing their culture represented in literature allows ethnic students to see that there are others like them, even if they exist in a small minority in their local community. Teachers can also do this with other subjects as well such as History. Teachers can increase the likelihood that their students will be accepting of diverse cultures by teaching their students about historical events that promoted equality and ended racial and cultural injustices. Exploring these pivotal moments in history, both in America and abroad,

allows students to learn from the challenges of their forefathers, and make more educated decisions when they select a path in the future. It also allows students to see where diverse groups have come from, and how their stories have contributed to the world in which we live. Teachers could also include whole class discussions where students sit around in a circle. Ask them to share what their ethnic and religious backgrounds are, where their parents are from and how many generations their family has been living in the United States for. Have them tell the class one custom or tradition their family participates in due to religious or ethnic backgrounds. Doing little things like these will make the students more comfortable within the classroom and will hopefully make them more willing to learn. My short term goals for my whole idea are for students to get a better understanding of the many cultures that they are surrounded by daily. If students take the time to actually learn about it each other and diversify themselves then my short-term goal is complete. For my long- term goal I want the students to take what they have learned and apply it to real world situations. Such as speaking to another person in their specific dialect or knowing about another persons heritage. If this part of the proposal goes successful then the students will have an easier time networking later on in life. So What? I feel as if we take the time to implement this short plan language diversity within the classroom will not be an issue because students will want to learn and ready to succeed when it comes to social networking in the real world which is my overall goal to be taken from the issue. If my solution proposal goes well then we can implement this plan globally and see how it would affect other students around the world. There are so many positives that could come with the plan being added in the classroom. The key reason that has me feeling strongly for the language diversity is because of the social networking that could occur after everyone has learned a little

about others cultures and heritage. Networking is essential for success in the real world and if language diversity was to be set in motion networking would be a lot easier because of better communication. I also feel as if a whole society if language diversity was to occur we would be able to bond more because of the knowledge about others lifestyle. Language is such a key aspect to society and if the diversity boarders were broken it could change the world.

Works Cited Speicher, Barbara, and Jessica Bielanski Critical Thoughts on Teaching Standard English Curriculum Inquiry Summer 2000. 10 October 2012. <http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/3202094>

Huddleston, Rodney and Geoffrey K. Pullum The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language 1st ed. United Kingdom: University of Cambridge, 2002. Print. < http://elivenet.com/upload/Cambridge%20english%20language.pdf>

Abedi, Jamal, Carolyn Huie Hofstetter, and Carol Lord Assessment Accommodations for English Language Learners: Implications for Policy-Based Empirical Research Review of Educational Research Spring 2004. 9 October 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/3516059>

Billings, Andrew C. Beyond the Ebonics Debate: Attitudes about Black and Standard American English Journal of Black Studies. September 2005. 9 October 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/40027322>

Callahan, Rebecca M. Tracking and High School English Learners: Limiting Opportunity to Learn American Educational Research Journal Summer 2005. 2 November 2012. <http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/3699378>

Pappamihiel, Eleni, Florin Mihai Assessing English Language Learners' Content Knowledge in Middle School Classrooms Middle School Journal September 2006. 2 November 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/23024472?seq=2>

Butler, Yuko Goto How Are Nonnative-English-Speaking Teachers Perceived by Young Learners? TESOL Quarterly December 2007. 2 November 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/40264404>

Hwang, Sean-Shong, Juan Xi Structural and Individual Covariates of English Language Proficiency Social Forces March 2008. 2 November 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/20430788>

Solano-Flores, Guillermo Who Is Given Tests in What Language by Whom, When, and Where? The Need for Probabilistic Views of Language in the Testing of English Language Learners Educational Researcher May 2008. 2 November 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/30138001?seq=1>

Durn, Richard P. Assessing English-Language Learners' Achievement Review of Research in Education 2008. 2 November 2012. < http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/20185119?seq=6>

Kiefer, Lesauz, Riveria, and Francis Accommodations for English Language Learners Taking

Large-Scale Assessments: A Meta-Analysis on Effectiveness and Validity Review of Educational Research July 2009. 2 November 2012. < http://rer.sagepub.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/content/79/3/1168.full#abstract-1>

Callahan, Wilkinson, Muller Academic Achievement and Course Taking Among Language Minority Youth in U.S. Schools: Effects of ESL Placement Sage Journals February 2010. 2 November 2012 < http://epa.sagepub.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/content/32/1/84.full>