Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

188 Language Diversity in the Classroomin their own eyes and in the perceptions of others. In some cases, theseparateness decreases over time, sometimes to such an extent that it islost, but this is not inevitable. Some groups, or some group members,resist assimilation; for others, visible distinctiveness may mean a moreenduring separateness, even if this is not desired. As with the earlierdiscussion of the discontinuities that may distinguish nonstandard,working-class speakers from some mainstream or middle-class population,the most germane matters here have to do with the points of contactbetween those who dominate and those who do not. It is the dynamics ofthese contact points that either produce or suppress linguistic accommodation,and this is true whether the accommodation is simply to easeminority-group speakers more efficiently into the dominant linguisticchannel, or to contribute to some relatively enduring cultural pluralism.Language, in all its forms, has always been the central feature ofeducation. As we have already seen, concerns for language havegenerally coexisted with strong sentiments about what is correct andwhat is wrong, what is different and what is deficient. This prescriptivisttendency has both reflected and reinforced broader ‘mainstream’opinion. We have also seen how certain groups of children whoselanguage is not of the standard variety typically taught and encouragedat school children of the working class, or of ethnic-minority origin orof both have been seen as linguistically disadvantaged and in need ofremedial or compensatory attention. The aim here has often been toreplace an allegedly flawed maternal variety with a ‘correct’ one, althoughthere is perhaps an increasing tendency to opt for a policy of repertoireexpansion: to supplement the maternal variety, that is, with a morestandard form. From a linguistic point of view, this is certainly a moreenlightened approach, but putting it into effect is a delicate exercise thatis rarely handled well, even when teachers are informed and sympathetic.Replacement remains the policy in too many settings, however,and even where more progressive views obtain, it regularly reappearswhenever ‘declining standards’ are an issue, or whenever a previouslydisparaged dialect makes a bid for a place in the classroom.When we move from dialect to language, we should first of all recallthat linguistic prejudices and their important ramifications have oftenmade a seemingly effortless leap from nonstandard to altogetherseparate varieties. In a previous chapter, for instance, I touched uponearly 20th-century assessments of intelligence that regularly demonstratedthe feeble-mindedness of non-English speakers, mentionedGoodenough’s (1926: 393) observation that ‘the use of a foreign languagein the home is one of the chief factors in producing mental retardation’,