Overview

This volume brings together a multiplicity of voices--both theoretical and practical--on the complex politics, challenges, and strategies of educating students--in North America and worldwide--who are speakers of diverse or nonstandard varieties of English, creoles, and hybrid varieties of English, such as African American Vernacular English, Caribbean Creole English, Tex Mex, West African Pidgin English, and Indian English, among others. The number of such students is increasing as a result of the spread of English, internal and global migration, and increased educational access. Dialects, Englishes, Creoles, and Education offers: *a sociohistorical perspective on language spread and variation; *analysis of related issues such as language attitudes, identities, and prescribed versus actual language use; and *practical suggestions for pedagogy. Pedagogical features: Key points at the beginning of each chapter help focus the reader and provide a framework for reading, writing, reflection, and discussion; chapter-end questions for discussion and reflective writing engage and challenge the ideas presented and encourage a range of approaches in dealing with language diversity. Collectively, the chapters in this volume invite educators, researchers, and students, across the fields of TESOL, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, English, literacy, and language education, to begin to consider and adopt context-specific policies and practices that will improve the language development and academic performance of linguistically diverse students.

Full Product Details

9780805846584

Table of Contents

Reviews

<p> The book is a good collection of thought-provoking papers on the linguistic and educational tension created by the proliferation of vernacular Englishes and the need for language standardisation. --Language and Education, 2008<p> If we believe?that all children have a right to literacy and education, then as professional linguists we are obliged to advocate for more humane and effective ways of achieving this. This will no doubt involve?confronting conservative, blame-the-victims folk models of language and education with the truth about what language differences mean and, perhaps more importantly, what they don?t mean. This volume?makes a significant contribution to this enterprise. I hope it will find its way into many teacher education programs. --Ronald Kephart, Language Policy (2008), 7: 377-379

Author Information

Shondel J. Nero

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