Student's Language in an Academic Setting

Marissa Lehnert

Engw_1100_34

Prof. Young

Due: 9/17/15

Student's Language in an Academic Setting

     I think student's should have the right to use their own language in school.  Teachers always say that everyone is different in their own ways and allowing the students to speak the way they want and say the things they want proves that true.  Proper English is commonly spoken during classes, but outside of class, people speak with accents, slang and even different languages.  I think it is good that students practice their own dialect during school because it also allows other students to acquire the vocabulary that is being used as slang.  Most of the new slang comes from people young and old, so it will also allow for students to communicate more comfortably.  According to the article Students' Right to Their Own Language by the National Council of Teachers of English, "The claim that any one dialect is unacceptable amounts to an attempt of one social group to exert its dominance over another"(NCTE 4).  In other words,  to say that one dialect is allowed over another is belittling the other.  All dialects are equally dominant.  "The explanation of what a dialect is becomes difficult when we recognize that dialects are developed in response to many kinds of communication needs"(NCTE 5).  People talk certain ways to meet the needs of others around them.  If people see that no one around them uses proper English and is just hanging out and using slang, they are not going to sit there and speak like Albert Einstein would, they would speak using slang along with the people around them.  To conclude, the way a student speaks is a freedom of speech, a freedom of expression, and a freedom of identity