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Reading Matters
Justice Matters
| 12| Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 |
Speak Up! The Unintentional Silencing
of Minority Students
By Leslie D. Roberts, Clemson University
ABSTRACT—The dissonance between the dialectal language
minority students use at home and the language expected of them
at school may interfere with their engagement in the classroom and
this lack of engagement may hinder motivation to use ‘standard
English’ accurately and often. In a typical classroom setting,
standard English is expected of all students. However, when non-
standard dialect students feel they are being judged by their dialect,
they may be more concerned with how they speak instead of the
information they are expressing. Unknowingly, teachers may be
silencing minority students through their expectations of language
use in the classroom. When all students are able to participate in
authentic learning based on their funds of knowledge, they will also
be more engaged in their learning. This review showcases some
of the language barriers that can exist between minority students
and their teachers, along with offering solutions to these barriers.
Differences in Language Use at Home
and in the Classroom
Language is the first place that students feel accepted or
not accepted in the classroom (Behrend, 2009). Oftentimes,
teachers do not realize the dissonance between the standard
English dialect used in the classroom and the dialectal versions
some students use at home. In fact, very few children arrive to
school fully capable of the academic language that is expected
of them in the classroom (Fillmore & Snow, 2000). However all
students, including dialectal language minority students, are
expected to speak a standard English in the classroom, even if
it is a dialect they are not comfortable using. This expectation
teachers have for their students to use a standard English
dialect in the classroom may hinder the language minority
student’s overall academic performance by unintentionally
silencing them from communicating in their preferred dialect.
The language practices used at home would be included
in the student’s funds of knowledge. Teachers,may overlook
these funds of knowledge that students bring from home as
they concentrate on the content they are expected to teach.
According to Delpit (2006), “Children have the right to their
own language, their own culture… [and should] be allowed
to express themselves in their own language style” (p. 37).
Standard American English vs. Non-
standard Dialects
Students who speak non-standard dialects come into
classrooms and are expected to use standard English regularly,
accurately and to do this as quickly as possible with minimal
help from the teacher (Fillmore & Snow, 2000). Standard English
(SE) refers to language that is both written and spoken without
regionalisms and accents; non-standard dialects (NSD) incorporate
regional word choice, pronunciation, sentence structure, and voice
inflection (Burdette, 2011). There are many dialects heard across
the country and just about everyone speaks with some sort of
dialect. Therefore, there really is no true ‘American Dialect;’ rather,
standard English (SE) is the language spoken by schools, media
outlets, the government, and so forth (Burdette, 2011). According
to Adams & Curzan, (2009), because language is constantly
changing and varies by situation, no one is said to speak a “perfect”
version of SE. By implying that SE is the only form of language
to be used in the classroom, teachers may inadvertently cause
students to disengage from wanting to even participate in class.
Miscommunication between the
Teacher and the NSD Student
When NSD students feel they are being judged by their dialect,
they may be more concerned with how they speak instead of
the information they are expressing. These students, now feeling
disconnected in the classroom, could begin to resent using SE
dialect. Ogbu (1999) attributes this miscommunication between
teachers and minority students to the different structural rules of
dialect used at home and school. Students may discover many
differences and an overall disjointedness between the language
and cultural understandings used at home and in school (Fillmore
& Snow, 2000). Dialect usage and rules for language use are vastly
different in both of these contexts, so these students may have
a difficult time using SE in each of these settings. Teachers and
students bring their own personal/cultural characteristics to the
classroom. Cultural characteristics can include attitudes, beliefs,
behaviors, ethnicity, social class, and verbal language such as
varying dialects and accents (Irvine, 1990). Often, the cultural and
personal characteristics that teachers have differ from those of their
minority students. These differences are sometimes conflicting
and create a sense of discontinuity (Irvine, 1990). Eventually, this
discontinuity could lead to an overall disengagement from learning.
Unintentionally Silencing Non-standard
Dialect Students
In a typical classroom setting, SE is expected of all students.
However, for some minority students, SE is not the dialect
they feel most comfortable using. Already, a misconception
that one form of language is ‘right’and another is ‘wrong’is
created. If a student feels uncomfortable using their dialectal
language from home in the classroom, they tend to remain
silent. This silence may cause students to fall further and
further behind academically while simultaneously resulting
in disengagement through a lack of authentic learning.