Critical Thoughts on Teaching Standard English

Abstract

This article exposes four assumptions that underlie most discussions of Standard English. First, spoken English equates to written English. Substantial evidence demonstrates that this equation is both misleading and false. Second, spoken and written English are equally amenable to standardization. This is also fallacious. We will use Prototype Theory (Rosch et al., 1976) and Standard Ideology (Milroy and Milroy, 1991) to explore how broadly shared notions about standard language have led to this belief. Third, Standard English is the language of the workplace and essential for social mobility. While we do not refute this assumption, we do explore the discrimination that stems from it. Fourth, Standard English is the language of the classroom. This assumption has never been systematically tested in the literature by examining the language that teachers use. Nor is it clear that teachers believe they do or should impose an idealized spoken form on their students.