Students who use nonstandard English have a hard time mastering Standard
English, and they have an even harder time with formal Standard English. Their
home dialect has served them well for years, and they may question the need to
change. For many, the message they may receive in their language arts
classes—that Standard and formal Standard English are important tools for
success in the adult world—is distorted or even blocked by youth, inexperi-
ence, and popular culture.
Standard and formal Standard English have identical grammatical struc-
tures, but they are governed by different usage conventions. Consider the ex-
ample sentences below:
3a. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has written a lot of books. (Standard English)
3b. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has written many books. (formal Standard English)
4a. Macarena was the woman that stole his heart. (Standard English)
4b. Macarena was the woman who stole his heart. (formal Standard English)Notice how the different usage conventions result in different word choices.
We use “a lot of” in speech, but not in writing. Likewise, when speaking we
commonly use the word “that” in sentences like 4a, but when writing or being
more formal, we use “who.”
The situation is not quite the same with regard to nonstandard English. The
most widely studied variety of nonstandard English, Black English Vernacular
(BEV), does differ grammatically from Standard English in a number of ways
(see chapter 7). But at the sentence level, the grammar of BEV and Standard
English is very similar, differing slightly with respect to certain word forms, as
the following sentences illustrate:
5a. Ralph is working today. (Standard English)
5b. Ralph be workin’ today. (BEV)Sensitivity to Home Dialects. Not everyone believes that our schools
should be teaching students Standard and formal Standard English. The question
has been debated among educators for many years and became heated in the early
1970s, in part owing to the growing sentiment that society in general and education
in particular should be more tolerant and accepting of nonstandard English.
The issue is sensitive because language is inextricably linked to who we are.
We define ourselves—and others define and assess us—on the basis of the lan-
guage we use, which nearly always is a reflection of our upbringing, our com-
munity, and our social class. As a result, efforts to get students who speak
nonstandard English to master the conventions of Standard English are fre-
quently seen today as an attack on a child’s heritage. Many educators also be-
32 CHAPTER 2