Application and Significance for Students
Students both proliferate slang and encounter unfamiliar language. It is important that teachers acknowledge both of these dimensions. Firstly, it is important for teachers to engage students with slang, bridging the gap between academics and real life, and validating their voices. Slang is an important part of students’ vocabulary. It is part of their present identity and voice. Many students have gone through school being told they must speak and write without slang, though that does not reflect how they speak or who they are. In a survey conducted with fifty-three students, 15% said that adults always told them to use different language in their speech or writing, while 49% said that this occurred sometimes, and 26% said that this never occurred. While this data suggests that not all students are stifled by the expectation to utilize particular language, it does demonstrate that many students are told that the way they speak, a reflection of their identity is inappropriate or unacceptable. This message can weigh on students’ confidence and make them feel as if they are not good enough for the academic world. While it is important to show students how specific, vivid, or formal language may, in some cases, more powerfully and precisely communicate what they mean, it is also important that teachers utilize slang to validate student identity and connect with them. Teachers should congratulate students on their contributions to an ever-evolving language and recognize their unique voices as individuals. Furthermore, students’ interest in the language that they use, own, and create can be transferred to a mastery of language in general. For example, students can utilize slang language in a first person narrative to master the writing trait of voice.
Erin Gruwell, an English teacher famous for building a close community with her students and leading these self-proclaimed “Freedom Writers” on a crusade for tolerance, demonstrates how teachers can incorporate student language into their pedagogical approach to academic content. Planning an upcoming unit, she ponders:
Since I’m tackling Shakespeare soon, I need to convince them that this guy in tights who talked funny “has it going on.” I need to show them that Shakespeare’s got a little “something something” for everyone. So what I ‘m going to do is make the Montagues and Capulets into a modern-day posse. They were the true, “OGs” as the kids say, the original gangsters, and although the language, colors, and turf have changed dramatically over the last four hundred years, the theme is universal. (Gruwell, 32)
In order to connect with her students, part of the youth culture in Long Beach, California, during the mid-nineties, Gruwell reaches out to them by speaking their language. Furthermore, she utilizes this teen language to facilitate a deeper parallel between the centuries-old story and her student’s present-day lives, gang violence. Teachers might also use slang as a tool to convey concepts to students that will help them better understand or feel more comfortable talking about difficult topics. Consider this scenario:
Scanning the faces of her students, Mrs. Wood wonders if they can handle it. The class is in the middle of reading aloud “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, and they are approaching the part where it is revealed that John Proctor had an affair with Abigail. Utilizing the language of Puritans in the late seventeenth century, the text describes the illicit act as John “having known her.” From experience, Mrs. Wood knows that students will most likely miss what is signified by the verb “to know” in this context. Today, the verb “to know” is only utilized in a platonic sense. It is her job to help her students navigate this archaic language. Furthermore, as a major plot point, it is essential that the students understand that an affair has taken place. While Mrs. Wood’s students are fairly mature ninth-graders, she does not want to discuss the act in explicit terms knowing that she would make several students in her class uncomfortable. At an appropriate stopping point, Mrs. Wood interjects and the read-aloud pauses. Rather than explicitly describing the relationship between John Proctor and Abigail, potentially alienating some students from the class discussion, Mrs. explains, “So John has “known her,” which was in that period the polite way of saying they were getting jiggy with it.” The class bursts into laughter, many understanding the euphemism in specific reference to a popular late nineties Will Smith song, but all familiar with the phrase as part of common pop cultural slang. Mrs. Wood acknowledges the laughter with the relief and then fluidly transitions the class back into read mode. The students settle down, and begin reading again with greater understanding of the text and a revitalized interest in the story.
Not only did Mrs. Wood diffuse a potentially uncomfortable atmosphere or problematic disruptions, but she engaged the class with humor, drawing them into the story and rhetorically making it relevant to their lives. It is important to note that this strategy may not have worked in every classroom. For example, if Mrs. Wood had any students who were English Language Learners, they most likely would not have understood this cultural reference. Mrs. Wood would have needed to approach the topic in a different way in order to not alienate these students.
Though slang is a useful vehicle for connecting with students and validating their identities, teachers still should show students how there are specific contexts for language use. There are times when formal language may be more appropriate, or a better means of communication. Aitchison notes in her article on teen slang:
A key skill is that of “appropriacy.” that is they are learning to make their language appropriate to the linguistic situation in which they find themselves. Baby brothers, parents and school friends need to be spoken to in different ways, and using different words. (Aitchison 21)
Data from our survey demonstrated that today’s teens are developing that skill. Out of fifty-three students surveyed, varying in age from fourteen to seventeen, 38% said that they always used very different language when talking to adults than when talking to friends, while 42% said sometimes and 11% said never.
Because of the vast number of new words brought to the English language, formally or informally, every year, teachers need to help students learn how to cope with the increasing amount of language that they are unfamiliar with. To evaluate how students handle unfamiliar language today, our survey asked students to mark every strategy from a list that they might use when encountering unfamiliar language. A majority of 66% of students said that they “use context to guess what [the word] means.” In descending order from most used strategy to least used strategy, following the top answer were, “I look it up, but usually later” with 43% of students, “I ask the teacher” with 36% of students, “I ask a friend/classmate” with 26% of students, “I skip it and keep reading” with 23% of students, and “I look it up right away” with 11% of students. Two students said “I stop reading.”
These results demonstrate that many students from this population have strategies in their “toolbox” to manage unfamiliar language. Most students denoted that they there were one or two strategies they might use, while 32% of students responded with three or more strategies in their “toolbox.” To help students better master unfamiliar language, teachers can help students practice these strategies, and introduce some new ones, so that more students have more strategies to choose from. While many students responded with several strategies they might use, not all of the strategies were positive ones. As noted above, 23% of the students said that they “skip [the word] and keep reading.” Some students can compensate for this lack of understanding by taking in the general gist of the rest of the passage, gaining enough information to receive a clear, if not thorough, understanding of a written passage. However, not knowing the precise meaning of one unfamiliar word in a passage can affect the meaning or nuance of the passage. Therefore, providing other, more useful options for discerning the meaning of a new word, and practicing these strategies, will encourage better comprehension. Though the students who said that they stop reading after encountering an unfamiliar word comprise the smallest percentage of chosen strategies, it is still cause for concern. Teachers should pay attention to equipping all students with the ability to handle new language, preventing some students from falling through the cracks.
Erin Gruwell, an English teacher famous for building a close community with her students and leading these self-proclaimed “Freedom Writers” on a crusade for tolerance, demonstrates how teachers can incorporate student language into their pedagogical approach to academic content. Planning an upcoming unit, she ponders:
Since I’m tackling Shakespeare soon, I need to convince them that this guy in tights who talked funny “has it going on.” I need to show them that Shakespeare’s got a little “something something” for everyone. So what I ‘m going to do is make the Montagues and Capulets into a modern-day posse. They were the true, “OGs” as the kids say, the original gangsters, and although the language, colors, and turf have changed dramatically over the last four hundred years, the theme is universal. (Gruwell, 32)
In order to connect with her students, part of the youth culture in Long Beach, California, during the mid-nineties, Gruwell reaches out to them by speaking their language. Furthermore, she utilizes this teen language to facilitate a deeper parallel between the centuries-old story and her student’s present-day lives, gang violence. Teachers might also use slang as a tool to convey concepts to students that will help them better understand or feel more comfortable talking about difficult topics. Consider this scenario:
Scanning the faces of her students, Mrs. Wood wonders if they can handle it. The class is in the middle of reading aloud “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, and they are approaching the part where it is revealed that John Proctor had an affair with Abigail. Utilizing the language of Puritans in the late seventeenth century, the text describes the illicit act as John “having known her.” From experience, Mrs. Wood knows that students will most likely miss what is signified by the verb “to know” in this context. Today, the verb “to know” is only utilized in a platonic sense. It is her job to help her students navigate this archaic language. Furthermore, as a major plot point, it is essential that the students understand that an affair has taken place. While Mrs. Wood’s students are fairly mature ninth-graders, she does not want to discuss the act in explicit terms knowing that she would make several students in her class uncomfortable. At an appropriate stopping point, Mrs. Wood interjects and the read-aloud pauses. Rather than explicitly describing the relationship between John Proctor and Abigail, potentially alienating some students from the class discussion, Mrs. explains, “So John has “known her,” which was in that period the polite way of saying they were getting jiggy with it.” The class bursts into laughter, many understanding the euphemism in specific reference to a popular late nineties Will Smith song, but all familiar with the phrase as part of common pop cultural slang. Mrs. Wood acknowledges the laughter with the relief and then fluidly transitions the class back into read mode. The students settle down, and begin reading again with greater understanding of the text and a revitalized interest in the story.
Not only did Mrs. Wood diffuse a potentially uncomfortable atmosphere or problematic disruptions, but she engaged the class with humor, drawing them into the story and rhetorically making it relevant to their lives. It is important to note that this strategy may not have worked in every classroom. For example, if Mrs. Wood had any students who were English Language Learners, they most likely would not have understood this cultural reference. Mrs. Wood would have needed to approach the topic in a different way in order to not alienate these students.
Though slang is a useful vehicle for connecting with students and validating their identities, teachers still should show students how there are specific contexts for language use. There are times when formal language may be more appropriate, or a better means of communication. Aitchison notes in her article on teen slang:
A key skill is that of “appropriacy.” that is they are learning to make their language appropriate to the linguistic situation in which they find themselves. Baby brothers, parents and school friends need to be spoken to in different ways, and using different words. (Aitchison 21)
Data from our survey demonstrated that today’s teens are developing that skill. Out of fifty-three students surveyed, varying in age from fourteen to seventeen, 38% said that they always used very different language when talking to adults than when talking to friends, while 42% said sometimes and 11% said never.
Because of the vast number of new words brought to the English language, formally or informally, every year, teachers need to help students learn how to cope with the increasing amount of language that they are unfamiliar with. To evaluate how students handle unfamiliar language today, our survey asked students to mark every strategy from a list that they might use when encountering unfamiliar language. A majority of 66% of students said that they “use context to guess what [the word] means.” In descending order from most used strategy to least used strategy, following the top answer were, “I look it up, but usually later” with 43% of students, “I ask the teacher” with 36% of students, “I ask a friend/classmate” with 26% of students, “I skip it and keep reading” with 23% of students, and “I look it up right away” with 11% of students. Two students said “I stop reading.”
These results demonstrate that many students from this population have strategies in their “toolbox” to manage unfamiliar language. Most students denoted that they there were one or two strategies they might use, while 32% of students responded with three or more strategies in their “toolbox.” To help students better master unfamiliar language, teachers can help students practice these strategies, and introduce some new ones, so that more students have more strategies to choose from. While many students responded with several strategies they might use, not all of the strategies were positive ones. As noted above, 23% of the students said that they “skip [the word] and keep reading.” Some students can compensate for this lack of understanding by taking in the general gist of the rest of the passage, gaining enough information to receive a clear, if not thorough, understanding of a written passage. However, not knowing the precise meaning of one unfamiliar word in a passage can affect the meaning or nuance of the passage. Therefore, providing other, more useful options for discerning the meaning of a new word, and practicing these strategies, will encourage better comprehension. Though the students who said that they stop reading after encountering an unfamiliar word comprise the smallest percentage of chosen strategies, it is still cause for concern. Teachers should pay attention to equipping all students with the ability to handle new language, preventing some students from falling through the cracks.
