M. Lee 11
The List
I. Language, Class and Culture
This section represents my major focus and area of interest: minority students’ writing. Because of the complex and interwoven nature of the issues surrounding the way minority students write, the way that writing is received (or perceived), the way the students themselves are viewed, the language(s) that they employ, etc., I am including works from a wide range of sources. Part 1 is primarily from the field of rhetoric and composition and focuses on the issues that affect minority students including basic writing, power, and resistance. Much of the work that has been done in this area has focused on African American students and that is reflected in this list. Part 2 contains materials from the field of sociolinguistics, including the integration of native (first) languages into the classroom, language maintenance, and language discrimination. Part 3 focuses on my personal area of interest—language in Hawai‘i. These works are predominantly from the field of sociolinguistics because there has been little work published on non-fictional writing in non-standard englishes in Hawai‘i.
Part 1: Rhetorical & Composition Theory as It Pertains to “Disadvantaged Students”
One of the main issues for me as a teacher and a rhet/comp scholar is why some students seem to “get it” and others don’t—even if these students come from similar educational backgrounds, such as those labeled “disadvantaged.” Students identified for the EOP writing course do not do equally well. It still seems like students from white families, and perhaps “middle class” backgrounds tend to figure “it” out on their own through trial and error, regardless of our teaching. The other students, however, who are mostly of ethnic minority groups, do not seem to make the same kinds of connections on their own about the academic genres we teach. This section, then, looks at previous research on this population of students that tries to address the issue of teaching students from non-mainstream cultures (race/ethnicity as well as class) and how that relates to education in general and writing in particular. These works also address the problematic nature of having separate programs for these students, which may in fact set them further apart from the mainstream university culture and population.
Ball, A. F. (1999). Evaluating the Writing of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students: The Case of the African American Vernacular English Speaker. In C. R. Cooper & L. Odell (Eds.), Evaluating Writing: The Role of Teachers' Knowledge about Text, Learning, and Culture (pp. 225-248). Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Ball, Arnetha, and Ted Lardner. “Dispositions toward Language: Teacher Constructs of Knowledge and the Ann Arbor Black English Case.” CCC 48.4 (Dec 1997): 469-485.
Baratz, Joan C. and Roger W. Shuy, eds. Teaching Black Children to Read. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1969.
Bartholomae, D. (1993). The Tidy House: Basic Writing in the American Curriculum. Journal of Basic Writing 12 (pp. 4-21).
Bullock, R., & Trimbur, J. (Eds.). (1991). The Politics of Writing Instruction: Postsecondary. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
û Wall, S., & Coles, N. (1991). Reading Basic Writing: Alternatives to a Pedagogy of Accommodation. pp. 227-246.
û Trimbur, J. (1991). Literacy and the Discourse of Crisis. pp. 277-296.
û Holzman, M. (1991). Observations on Literacy: Gender, Race, and Class. pp. 297-306.
Dudley-Marling, C., & Edelsky, C. (Eds.). (2001). The Fate of Progressive Language Policies and Practices. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Dueñas González, Roseann with Ildikó Melis. (Eds.) (2000). Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
û Schmid, Carol. The Politics of English Only in the United States: Historical, Social, and Legal Aspects. pp. 62-86.
û Garcia, Eugene E. Treating Linguistic and Cultural Diversity as a Resource: The Research Response to the Challenges Inherent in the Improving America’s Schools Act and California’s Proposition 227. pp. 90-113.
û Krashen, Stephen D. Bilingual Education: The Debate Continues. pp. 137-160.
û Judd, Elliot L. English Only and ESL Instruction: Will It Make a Difference? pp. 163-176.
û Lippi-Green, Rosina. That’s Not My Language: The Struggle to (Re)Define African American English. pp. 230-247.
û Okawa, Gail Y. From “Bad Attitudes” to(ward) Linguistic Pluralism: Developing Reflective Language Policy among Preservice Teachers. pp. 276-296.
û Cliett, Victoria. Between the Lines: Reconciling Diversity and Standard English. pp. 297-317.
û Rodriguez Connal, Louise. Transcultural Rhetorics for Cultural Survival. pp. 318-332.
Fox, H. (1994). Listening to the World: Cultural Issues in Academic Writing. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Fox, Tom. Defending Access: A Critique of Standards in Higher Education. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, Heinemann, 1999.
Gilyard, K. (Ed.). (1999). Race, Rhetoric, and Composition. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
û Powell, M. Blood and Scholarship: One Mixed-Blood’s Story. pp. 1-16.
û Gilyard, K. Higher Learning: Composition’s Racialized Reflection. pp. 44-52.
û Holmes, D. G. Fighting Back by Writing Black: Beyond Racially Reductive Composition Theory. pp. 53-66.
Greenbaum, Andrea, ed. Insurrections: Approaches to Resistance in Composition Studies. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001.
[See especially Gilyard and Richardson, Brown, and Wells]
Horner, B., & Lu, M.-Z. (1999). Representing the "Other": Basic Writers and the Teaching of Basic Writing. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Howard, Rebecca Moore. “The Great Wall of African American Vernacular English in the American College Classroom.” JAC 16.2 (1996): 265-83.
Hurlbert, C. M., & Totten, S. (Eds.). (1992). Social Issues in the English Classroom. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Kawakami, Alice J., and Kathryn Hu Pei. “Encouraging Reading and Language Development in Cultural Minority Children.” Topics in Language Disorders 6.2 (Mar 1986): 71-80.
McNenny, Gerri. (Ed.) (2001). Mainstreaming Basic Writers: Politics and Pedagogies of Access. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
û Ch. 1: McNenny, Gerri. “Writing Instruction and the Post-Remedial University: Setting the Scene for the Mainstreaming Debate in Basic Writing.”
û Ch. 6: Agnew, Eleanor and Margaret McLaughlin. “Those Crazy Gates and How They Swing: Tracking the System That Tracks African-American Students.”
û Ch. 7: Singer, Marti. “Moving the Margins.”
û Ch. 11: Smoke, Trudy. “Mainstreaming Writing: What Does This Mean for ESL Students?”
Minow, Martha. “The Dilemma of Difference.” Academic Discourse: Readings for Argument and Analysis. Ed. Gail Stygall. Thomson Custom Publishing, 2001. pp.
Parks, S. (2000). Class Politics: The Movement for the Students' Right to Their Own Language. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Schroeder, C., Fox, H., & Bizzell, P. (Eds.). (2002). ALT DIS: Alternative Discourses and the Academy. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
û Bizzell, P. The Intellectual Work of “Mixed” Forms of Academic Discourses. pp. 1-11
û Powell, M. Listening to Ghosts: An Alternative (non)argument. pp. 11-22.
û Lan, H. Contrastive Rhetoric: A Must in Cross-Cultural Inquiries. pp. 68-79.
û Kremer, B. So It Was This Beautiful Night: Infecting the Hybrid. pp. 97-111.
û Elbow, P. Vernacular Englishes in the Writing Classroom? Probing the Culture of Literacy. pp. 126-138.
û Schroeder, C. From the Inside Out (or the Outside In, Depending). pp. 178-190.
û Matsuda, P. K. Alternative Discourses: A Synthesis. pp. 191-196.
Severino, C., Guerra, J. C., & Butler, J. E. (Eds.). (1997). Writing in Multicultural Settings. New York: MLA.
û Lisle & Mano. Embracing a Multicultural Rhetoric. pp. 12-26.
û Troutman, D. Whose Voice Is It Anyway? Marked Features in the Writing of Black English Speakers. pp. 27-39.
û Campbell, K. “Real Niggaz’s Don’t Die”: African American Students Speaking Themselves into Their Writing. pp. 67-78.
û Okawa, G. Cross-Talk: Talking Cross-Difference. pp. 94-105.
û Severino, C. Two Approaches to “Cultural Text”: Toward Multicultural Literacy. pp. 106-117.
û Hesford, W. Writing Identities: The Essence of Difference in Multicultural Classrooms. pp. 133-149.
û Guerra, J. The Place of Intercultural Literacy in the Writing Classroom. pp. 248-260.
û Soliday, M. The Politics of Difference: Toward a Pedagogy of Reciprocity. pp. 261-272.
û Miller, C. “Better Than What People Told Me I Was”: What Students of Color Tell Us about the Multicultural Classroom. pp. 287-297.
û Mangelsdorf, K. Students on the Border. pp. 298-306.
û Gilyard, K. Cross-Talk: Toward Transcultural Writing Classrooms. pp. 325-332.
Shaughnessy, M. P. (1977). Errors and Expectations : A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smitherman, Geneva. (2000). Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture and Education in African America. London and New York: Routledge.
û English Teacher, Why you Be Doing the Thangs You Don’t Do? pp. 123-131.
û Ebonics, King, and Oakland: Some Folk Don’t Believe Fat Meat is Greasy. pp. 150-162.
û African American Student Writers in the NAEP, 1969-88/89 and “The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice.” pp. 163-194. (See also List 3, Part 3: Methodology.)
Stuckey, Elspeth. (1991). The Violence of Literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Stygall, Gail. (1994). Resisting Privilege: Basic Writing and Foucault’s Author Function. CCC 45:3 (pp. 320-341).
Stygall, Gail. (1999). Unraveling at Both Ends: Anti-Undergraduate Education, Anti-Affirmative Action, and Basic Writing at Research Schools. Journal of Basic Writing 18:2 (pp. 4-22).
Soliday, Mary. The Politics of Remediation. Pittsburgh, PA: U of Pittsburgh Press, 2002.
Sternglass, Marilyn. Time to Know Them. Matwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1995.
Tollefson, J. W. (1991 (1994)). Planning Language, Planning Inequality: Language Policy in the Community. London: Longman.
Villanueva, V. Jr. (1993). Bootstraps. Urbana, IL: NCTE. (See also List 3, Part 2: Ethnographies.)
---. (Ed.). (1997) Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader . Urbana, IL: NCTE.
û Lunsford, A. Cognitive Development and the Basic Writer. pp. 277-288.
û Rose, M. Narrowing the Mind and Page: Remedial Writers and Cognitive Reductionism. pp. 323-364.
û Bizzell, P. Cognition, Convention, and Certainty: What We Need to Know about Writing. pp. 365-390.
û Elbow, P. The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University. pp. 525-548.
û Delpit, L. D. The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children. pp. 565-588.
û Hairston, M. Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing. pp. 659-676.
û Bizzell, P. “Contact Zones” and English Studies. pp. 735-742.
Part 2: What We Know from Our Friends in Sociolinguistics
I cannot imagine talking about writing and the teaching of writing without talking about language. In particular, the criteria for who is relegated to such programs as EOP are often based on students’ ability to use language in particular ways that are deemed appropriate for college. At the UW, for example, student essay exams are divided into 3 groups: those with significant ESL-type issues go into 103, those with “writing issues” go into 104-105, and those that show a savviness with language (in the “appropriate” way) are passed on to 131. These “appropriate” ways are usually based on Western models of logic, argument, and evidence—aspects of writing and language use that may not be the same for all students. Sociolinguistics, then, allows me a way to examine how languages themselves are constructed, how they behave in a social context, and how the prestige of certain languages and language varieties influences the way communication is perceived, sometimes in spite of the message being conveyed.
Bickerton, Derek. Roots of Language.
Bourhis, Richard Y. “Acculturation, Language Maintenance, and Language Shift.” In Klatter-Foler and Avermaet. 5-38.
Lanehart, Sonja L. “African American Vernacular English and Education.” Journal of English Linguistics 26:2 (June 1998): 122-136.
Lippi-Green, Rosina. English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge, 1997.
Milroy, Leslie. “Bridging the Micro-Macro Gap: Social Change, Social Networks and Bilingual Repertoires.” In Klatter-Foler and Avermaet. 39-64.
Rickford, John R., and Angela E. Rickford. “Dialect Readers Revisited.” Linguistics and Education 7.2 (1995): 107-128.
Roberts, Peter A. “Integrating Creole into Caribbean Classrooms.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 15.1 (1994): 47-62.
Ryan, E. B. (1979). Why Do Low-Prestige Language Varieties Persist? In H. Giles & R. St. Clair (Eds.), Language and Social Psychology (pp. 145-157). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Siegel, J. (1997). Using a Pidgin Language in Formal Education: Help or Hindrance? Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 86-100.
Part 3: It’s All About Hawai‘i, Baby!
My area of interest is specifically the writing by Native Hawaiian students in Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i presents a complex situation in terms of the social, political and economic forces that constrain the kinds of writing validated by education. For Native Hawaiians, language is often trilingual (English, Hawaiian and Pidgin/HCE) with each language having various levels of overt and covert prestige, and writing is often formal and in contrast to a highly oral culture. The works in this section highlight the specific issues concerning language and education in Hawai‘i.
Canady, Claudia, Christine Y. Sumimoto, and Ronda Wojcicki. “A Comparison of Hawaiian Creole and Standard American English Speakers by Listeners Familiar and Unfamiliar with Hawaiian Creole.” Asia Pacific Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing 5.3 (2000): 157-162.
Fujikane, Candace. “Between Nationalisms: Hawaii’s Local Nation and Its Troubled Racial Paradise.” Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism. 1:2 Spring 1994
Meyer, Manulani Aluli. Native Hawaiian Epistemology: Contemporary Narratives. Dissertation. Harvard University Graduate School of Education. 1998.
Rodgers, Theodore S. “Poisoning Pidgins in the Park: The Study and Status of Hawaiian Creole.” Georgetown University Roundtable on Languages and Linguistics. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 1996. 221-235.
Romaine, Suzanne. “Hau fo Rait Pijin: Writing in Hawai’i Creole English. English Today 10.2 (Apr 1994): 20-24.
Sato, Charlene. “Linguistic Inequality in Hawaii: The Post-Creole Dilemma.” Language of Inequality. Eds. N Wolfson and J. Manes. Berlin: Mouton, 1985. 255-272.
Sonomura, Marion Okawa. Idiomaticity in the Basic Writing of American English: Formulas and Idioms on the Writing of Multilingual and Creole-Speaking Community College Students in Hawai’i. New York: Peter Lang, 1996.
Tamura, Eileen H. “African American Vernacular English and Hawai’i Creole English: A Comparison of Two School Board Controversies.” Journal of Negro Education 71.1-2 (Win-Spr 2002): 17-30.
Warner, Sam L. No‘eau. (1999). “Kuleana: The Right, Responsibility, and Authority of Indigenous Peoples to Speak and Make Decisions for Themselves in Language and Cultural Revitalization.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30.1 pp. 68-93.
Watson-Gegeo, Karen Ann. “Language and Education in Hawai’i: Sociopolitical and Economic Implications of Hawai’i Creole English.” Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations. Ed. Marcyliena Morgan. Los Angeles, CA: Center for Afro-American Publications, 1994. 101-120. (Central Washington U. has it)