Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Spreading the Word: Language and Dialect in America

Spreading the Word: Language and Dialect in America

McWhorter, John

Paperback

General ReferenceGeneral Education

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0325001987
ISBN13: 9780325001982
Publisher: Heinemann Educ Books
Published: Jan 14 2000
Pages: 96
Weight: 0.31
Height: 0.22 Width: 6.02 Depth: 9.18
Language: English
The idea that there is one best English is so intuitively plausible and so relentlessly inculcated in us that it is only natural to attempt to uphold this Standard among our students. Our error is in thinking that anything that deviates from this Standard is wrong. In Spreading the Word, linguist John McWhorter proves that these nonstandard dialects are not bastardizations of Standard English, but alternate variations upon the basic plan of English, of which the Standard is but one.

With a general focus on classroom applications, McWhorter makes accessible to teachers, teacher educators, and administrators basic language principles that are commonly accepted by linguists, but rarely disseminated to a general audience. Using data from several different languages, McWhorter shows that the speech differences we hear in America are qualitatively equivalent to those heard in other parts of the world where the same differences are not considered bad language. He links his thesis not only to prescriptive grammar, but to more immediate issues facing classroom teachers, such as Black English and code switching between Spanish and English. A complete chapter is dedicated to showing how mixture between languages is a worldwide and natural phenomenon, rather than a language-ravaging accident.

Spreading the Word closes with a brief overview of eight of the most spoken languages in this country that are least like English. In doing so, McWhorter helps us come to view the language palette that exists in our classrooms as an asset not a problem. Most of all, he reinforces our best instincts about accepting and celebrating our students language, while giving us solid grounds for doing so.

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