Disrupting Beliefs about Language

Disrupting Beliefs about Language

One of the things that I have learned from this is that there are discriminatory or marginalizing attitudes toward language that need to be broken down. It is important to appreciate and honor the linguistic diversity that is promoted in early childhood academic settings, bearing in mind that children whose home language is not English are taught in the English language (Tabors, 2008). This foregrounds the importance of continuing and ensuring that a child’s mother tongue alongside the acquisition of a second language, which eventually contributes to these children becoming successful in literacy and academically. Also, this shows teachers that they have to create multilingual communities where different languages are appreciated and can equally flourish, whether through language classrooms at the first-language level, bilingual programs, or classroom settings for English language learners where there is variety in the curriculum.

Indeed, I have been discriminated against due to my speech and the language I use. A specific experience from my childhood days, which I vividly remember, was when my dad, who was a seller back then, and I was grocery shopping at the open-air market. We were talking in Jamaican patois the whole time. A man who seemed to collide me off-center might be what my dad and I thought, proving a real reason to be alerted and angry. When we addressed him, he replied with a xenophobic remark, ordering us to “go back to where you came from,” which enraged my dad and presumably me as well: the words of the other man caused me to feel an incredible compulsion to retaliate physically in that moment of heated argument. The conversation ended up bringing emotions out of me: anger and unwillingness to be bilingualists straight in people’s faces.

References

Tabors, P. O. (2008). One child, two languages: A guide for early childhood educators of children learning English as a second language. Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co.

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Discussion Board: Disrupting Beliefs about Language

Professor Instruction: Several readings address the discriminatory or marginalizing beliefs about language that we seek to disrupt.  What have you learned? Have you experienced discrimination based on the way you speak or the languages you use?
Please respond to two colleagues as well.

Disrupting Beliefs about Language

when I was, younger I remember my dad went grocery shopping and we were speaking Jamaican patois to each other this guy bumped me to skip us on the line which made my dad upset when we confronted him he told us “to go back where we came from”. My dad said something back to him and I went to punch him and my dad stopped me from hitting him. This made me extremely mad.