Sociolinguistics and Language Education.pdf

Critical Language Awareness 217
J: Workin real hard, you know. Just a lot of things. A lot of things have
been goin on and so far everything’s been goin right. I’ve been
makin the right moves . . .
Students are encouraged to notate the transcript in detail. They are usually
adept at identifying a certain level of informality (through the use of
‘slang’ such as ‘wassup’, ‘chillin’, ‘you know what I’m saying?’) as well as
regionalisms in the New Orleans based-rapper’s speech (such as ‘woadie’,
which can mean, ‘man, homie’, etc.; ‘It’s all gravy!’ for the commonly used
‘It’s all good’.), and my use of ‘ha?’ as an attempt to build rapport with (or
‘be cool with’) the rapper by using one of his most famous expressions.
But, of course, the students are told, you can only gather so much information
by reading a transcript – you have to ‘go out into the fi eld’. After
introducing the theory and doing a hands-on ethnography of speaking
analysis, I wanted the students to be able to analyze their own communication
behavior in their everyday environments, from their actual lived
experiences. After challenging students and asking them if they thought
that they could do an ethnography of speaking with their own language
data, I introduced the ‘Language In My Life’ project. The students were
instructed to analyze their own communication behavior as it shifted
across contexts and situations. As ethnographers, they were charged with
carrying an ethnography notebook and documenting their communicative
encounters. The notebook consisted of grids that were to be fi lled in
throughout the day. An example from an eighth grader is as follows:
Language in my life
Date: Time:
November 22nd Early in the morning, like, 7am
Mode of Language (reading, speaking, writing, listening, etc.):
Speaking, listening, rappin
Name of Language:
Mostly in slang, or Ebonics, but sometimes in standard English
because my aunt was there and she talks like that.
Context (who’s involved, where is it happening, what’s happening):
I was sitting in the kitchen with my dad, eating cereal before I had to
go to school. Before that, I was reading this rap I had wrote over and
over again in my room, so I wanted to rap it for my dad. I did, and he
was feelin it! He said the he could do a better one, so he tried, but it
wasn’t better. He called my mom and aunt over from the other room
and told me to rap for them and I did. My mom was like, “Wow,
Lamar! You bad!” I said, “I know.” (Being cocky, as I am!) And my
aunt said, “What a talented young man.” My dad said he was gonna
battle me after school.