I read with interest a BBC report of a school in the UK having banned its primary-aged children from talking or writing in their local dialect. The school has adopted a "zero tolerance" approach – presumably in the same way that many of us strive for a zero-tolerance approach to the sloppy grammar and punctuation of some adults who could do better. At the school featured in the report, children have been 'banned' from using dialectal language in the classroom. The head teacher helpfully pointed out that this ruling only related to the classroom. This appears to be a tacit acknowledgement that even he has limited jurisdiction when it comes to policing language use.
Earlier this year, another school launched an identical initiative. But I do not believe that enough attention has been paid to the distinction between written and spoken language. They've simply been lumped together, with seemingly little concern for their very different social and communicative functions. Rather than banning certain language varieties, it is surely much more valuable for children to learn about and understand the co-existence of the different forms of communication elsewhere. Input here would include an appreciation of register, formality, audience, the distinct lack of any widespread 'standard' English accent in the UK, standard grammar and other features of writing, contrasted with other forms permitted in speaking.
Any other approach leads to the criticism that we are stigmatising people's social and regional identity as expressed through their language use. Similar linguistic discrimination existed from the 1840s until well into the 20th century in Wales with the Welsh Not, where schoolchildren were punished for speaking their native Welsh language at school. Children – can cope with multiple language varieties, whether these are dialects or separate languages. Were this not the case, then no-one would ever become bilingual.
As I have no doubt mentioned previously, German-speaking Switzerland, in contrast, positively celebrates its linguistic diversity in schools and in society generally. As the form of standard German used by national newsreaders (and almost no-one else) does not enjoy the prestige of one's local dialect, I was tasked with creating a 'language code' at school, a simple rule for pupils' day-to-day language use. This has nothing to do with banning children from speaking using their own dialect(s). Rather, it has everything to do with a lack of proficiency on my part and that of my other non-Swiss teaching colleague, where our understanding of Swiss German forms is concerned. The rule states that in the presence of us non-Swiss, for our benefit, High German, English or French be used.
'Banning' children from using certain language forms can only be interpreted as disapproval of language forms that have – standard or not – served their communicative needs. Banning them arguably also does children a disservice. Children need to at least be aware of important cultural and linguistic differences if they are to be expected, at some point in later life, to interpret and work with all the language varieties they encounter beyond the school gates.
I'm surprised that these schools have gone to such extreme measures. One thing I would be interested to know would be whether the primary aged children find it easy to distinguish between their local dialect and standard English, or whether they constantly have to be admonished, which really would seem harsh, and would certainly suggest that their local dialect or language is something negative, which concerns me.
ReplyDeleteIt's fair enough enough to expect the standard form for certain situations e.g. public speaking or written work, but as a general rule it seems over the top. Children talk to each other to develop an understanding of what they're studying in school - could they be hindered if too scared to chat freely in case they are told off for speaking in the vernacular?
I think there's a time and a place for standard English, but we should celebrate our diverse dialects and languages, and explain to the children that they need to learn standard English for certain purposes, but that they should never feel that their dialect or accent is anything negative.
I totally agree. On the issue of whether primary-aged children can distinguish between their local dialect and standard language, my Swiss experience has been interesting. Despite knowing and understanding the 'language code' in place at school, most students need to be reminded of it as they instinctively use their dialect almost all of the time.
DeleteAn older student once told me that she would rather speak English than High German! This was because the similarities, linguistically, between Swiss German and High German are reputedly so numerous that students at all levels inevitably slipped back into dialect after a short time. English, she felt, was different *enough* to avoid this problem.