The Effects of Training in Linguistics on Teaching: K-12 Teachers in White Mountain Apache Schools
TEACHER OPINIONS, ATTITUDES, AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THESE STUDENTS ENGLISH
Negative Attitudes toward Apache English
Below we provide teacher journal commentaries that illustrate teachers’ negative attitudes toward their students’ dialect of English. According to some, their students do not have a language. These teachers, and many members of the community, believe in a deficit theory about their students’ linguistic abilities.
Teacher A
In this first quote, Teacher A clearly demonstrates her initial negative attitude toward her
students’ English. This quote also illustrates that she has experienced a change in
attitude toward her students’ English, and now recognizes, values and respects it for the important functions it serves: as a communication tool among students in and out of school.
I have been guilty, in the past, of thinking of “reservation English” as “bad English”. It had not occurred to me that reservation English could be of value, and that it has value as a form of communication.
Teacher B
Teacher B, quoted below, by admitting that she understands why to reject the possibility that her students are “semi-lingual,” demonstrates her own and other teachers’ prejudices toward Apache English.
Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned in these lectures was the rejection of the theory of semi-lingualism. I have heard teachers say, “It’s hard for our children to learn because they have no language.”
Teacher K
Teacher K, an Apache born in Whiteriver, comments on the fact that she, like many people from Whiteriver, was criticized for speaking the way she did. Harsh punishments were launched against the use of Apache, and reservation English was considered to be “broken” and bad. This provides historical and personal evidence for long-term negative attitudes toward this community’s English.
She helped me to understand that each dialect is important and that we here at Whiteriver have our own dialect. We have always been told that we speak “Broken English or Rez talk” and that it is bad.
Teacher L
In the following quote, Teacher L calls the dialects spoken by Hispanics, Blacks and Apaches and other Native Americans “improper English.” Prior to the seminar, Teacher L did not understand the important fact that we all speak dialects, and that the determination of the status of one dialect over another changes over time. From a sociolinguistic perspective, such a determination is related to extra-linguistic factors, e.g. role and power relationships.
I have always known there are different dialects of all languages, but have not thought of the “improper” English spoken by Hispanics, blacks, or groups like the Apaches as being a dialect.
