Haley
Tugaw
March
9th, 2015
English
326
Language
of Power Essay
The
Demise of Pidgin in Classrooms
The
language of Pidgin has been prominent in Hawaiian culture for over 100 years,
and has even been included in classrooms. Pidgin has caused a disagreement in
classrooms regarding the language being spoken. Many teachers struggle with
incorporating both Pidgin and Standard English into the regime of their
classroom dynamics. Although, other educators are taking a stand and choosing
to take this debate a step further by incorporating Pidgin into their lesson
plans. These teachers have chosen to respect Hawaiian culture and customs by
implementing respect regarding the language in the classroom setting. Some
educators are choosing to challenge the idea of traditional, Standard English
by supporting the students who are fighting and resisting the suppression of
Pidgin in classrooms.
In
prior years teachers who did not see the value of Standard English suppressed
Pidgin. This led to student’s feelings discouraged and embodied feelings of
being a lesser individual within the classroom setting (Ching 2011). Students
were feeling as if teachers were pulling them away from their heritage by
forcing them to speak in Standard English and completely disconnect from Pidgin
in the classroom setting. The students, sad and resentful, felt out of place at school(put adjectives after the subject in order to provide emphasis and draw attention to the details). This led to students feeling invaluable in the
classroom setting. After years of suppressing students for their culture and
language, educators began to start implementing and accepting the idea of
Pidgin in classrooms (Ching, 2011).
Ching,
Stuart. "Cultural Memory in the Classroom Public Space." The
English Journal 101.1 (2011): 89-90. JSTOR. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.
I am focusing my paper around the idea of Pidgin in classroom settings and how teachers can show worth and value to these students languages. Also, focusing on how students were suppressed for their language and/or resisted the pressure to conform to Standard English and lose track of their home language. I have only the first page written of my paper and have only included one of my sources into the paper, but I plan to address how teachers have welcomed Pidgin into classes and teachers have even made lesson plans and grammar quizzes about Pidgin! I also want to address how the language has evolved since it was oppressed and potentially add a case study like scenario! I have chosen to use Pidgin because I feel like it is an often forgotten form of English that is even prevalent in the United States.
I think the overall idea for your paper is really great! I would maybe say where Pidgin is coming into the classroom more, because I assume it is more on the west coast and Hawaii, but I was left unsure if it was all over or not. Your use of adjectives right after the subject to create emphasis on how the students were feeling was really well done! You could also maybe talk about forms of resistance to only using Standard English. A place where you could start the sentence with participles would be: Challenging the idea of Standard English, some educators are supporting the students who are fighting and resisting the suppression of Pidgin in classrooms.
ReplyDeleteHaley,
ReplyDeleteThe topic you chose is interesting and I would love to hear more about it. I think that you chose a language that is not commonly recognized and it is important to take into account that as teachers, we will have students who come from various backgrounds. My only suggestion is to maybe talk about how pidgin can relate to the entire would and why it is not as recognized. The beginning of your paper seems to be great. The grammar patterns you used worked out very well. I especially liked your sentence, “The students, sad and resentful, felt out of place at school (put adjectives after the subject in order to provide emphasis and draw attention to the details.”, you used it very well and created the emphasis. Overall this is a really great start to a paper.