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November 15, 2020

Dear Professor Crowe,

The most mind-blown I have been while researching for this assignment was while reading MacNeil’s article, “English Belongs to Everybody.” Shakespeare’s English contains the same “errors” that inspire criticism of various English dialects spoken today. I remember being yelled at by my elementary school teachers for including double negatives in my writing and being talked down to because my English had so many “mistakes.” It’s not shocking that Shakespearean English is preferred because I grew up hearing his name and being told that his plays are classic literature. No, what shocks me is that it has been right in front of my face and I didn’t recognize it until it was written right in front of my eyes. Shakespeare’s writing does not fit into standard English structure and rules, but his work is continuously praised and widely regarded as linguistic masterpieces. I’m not saying that they aren’t great and worthy of respect and reverence. Not at all. But the fact that other versions of English barely scrape academic reading lists and when they do, it is nearly revolutionary and radical. It really says a lot that there even is so much to research and say about this topic when users of diverse English have always existed in vast and growing numbers. It says even more that I am writing this whole paper in white standard English because that is the only version of the language I’ve been so thoroughly exposed to in terms of academic text. 

A lot of the statistics I’ve come across didn’t surprise me at all though they are incredibly disheartening. The difference in diversity between staff and students is something I’ve experienced firsthand in my high school. My school boasted of diversity because minorities made up most of the student body. However, most of our teachers were white. This isn’t inherently negative as some teachers would make an effort to bridge the diversity gap with the material that they taught, however, there was really never an attempt to understand and hear the students themselves.

When researching about English Language Learners, I came across so many studies that assessed whether standard English speaking students were negatively impacted by their presence. THEIR PRESENCE. Regardless of the effect on standardized test scores, it is extremely ostracizing to look at a group of students and decide they should be separated because of their language skills. Providing extra resources and attention to those students, I get. But, treating them as though their value is dependent on their influence on non-ELL students? Especially within a system that must be picked apart and questioned. Language and reading assessments all tie into this idea of standardizing a language that is not uniform. But instead, students who are different are treated as burdens who must be linguistically whipped into shape instead of focusing on a reevaluation of the American education system and the shape of language that they prefer and perpetuate. 

Sincerely,
Samiha Hussen

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