Introduction

This is the second in the series of our flipped lectures on Incident Analysis, the first project in our Seminar in Academic Writing course, GSW 1120. The overarching theme of the entire course is Writing about Othering. Othering is a term that means the different ways by which a group mentally conditions and treats another as 'not belonging' either consciously or otherwise. In this series, we will explore the African American English AAE and biases attributed to this dialect of English. It is important to note that the terms language and dialect come with some bias. Society places value on both linguistic terms relatively differently: ‘language’ seems to have a higher status than ‘dialect’.

Your Tasks

1. Locate: Your dialect on the map in Reid Wilson's article What dialect do you speak?
2. Read: John H. Esling's "Everyone Has an Accent Except Me" (PDF in Canvas)
3. Read: Viorica Marian's Why American English is not broken English.
4. Watch: The in-set video titled "How do you pronounce water?" in Reid Wilson's piece.
5. Reflect: Having watched the in-set video in “What Dialect Do You Speak,” a) how do you call certain words in your dialect that is different in other dialects? How do you refer to concepts in your dialect that is different from others? b) Is there a social status attached to how differently people speak? How do you define Accent? With examples, if there are, what do you consider 'good' or 'bad' Accent? More importantly, what makes a language/dialect 'good' or 'bad'?
6. In class: (on Monday Feb 4) Complete Task 1 & 2 above. (on Wednesday Feb 6) Complete Task 3 & 4 above. (on Friday Feb 8) Complete 5 & 6 above and Further Consideration below.

Further Consideration

According to Viorica Marian, a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University, “critics argue that it [AAE] is “bad” English and should be eradicated.” As a writer, how do you want to confirm or debunk this statement, given that no language/dialect is good or bad in itself? Marian tries to identify some linguistic patterns of the AAE; considering their uniqueness, how can you explore the features of the AAE to better inform the public about the beauty of various tongues, especially the AAE? The AAE is not the only dialect of English that marginalized in America, what other linguistic groups do you think need a voice in academic discourses?

Works Cited

Marian, V. (2018, August 25). Why African American English is not “broken” English: Using language science to help fight racism. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-and-mind/201808/why-african-american-english-is-not-broken-english

Reid, W. (2013, December 10). What dialect do you speak? Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/12/02/what-dialect-to-do-you-speak-a-map-of-american-english/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c103249a5aa7

Designed by Michael Oshindoro