Date:  Mon, 6 May 1996 14:32:38 -0400

From:  "Bethany K. Dumas, U of Tennessee" <dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTKVX.UTK.EDU>

Subject: Re: Linguistic bio assignment



On Mon, 6 May 1996, mai kuha asked:



> Could you say a little more about how you handle the issue of student

> privacy in giving this assignment? Of course the students can complete

> the assignment without discussing every double negative and nonstandard

> subject-verb agreement ever uttered in their families, but isn't there

> some possibility that some individuals may somehow feel compelled to say

> more about their stigmatized linguistic behaviors than they wanted to?

<snip>

> Clearly, these are important stories for the other students to

> hear, but what's a positive way to handle this so that nobody becomes

> too vulnerable?

>

Thanks for your comment. Of course privacy is an important issue. I

address it both directly and indirectly. First, I use the assignment late

in the semester. By then, we know each other a bit (I have students work

in groups on some exercises), and they have heard some of my Shirley

stories, deliberately told to suggest my working-class origins. I have

talked about what it is like to be the first generation to be

university-educated. I have also brought in examples and small exercises

from "real" life (for those of you who reall it, for two years, now I have

used the "Barney Fag" question in class). Finally, I make it clear that

the student may choose what to present in the five-minute report. I never

ask questions about topics the student chooses not to report. And in the

papers themselves, students often reveal more than they do in the oral

reports, sometimes by inserting a "Like you, I .." (ex: "I, like you,

also referred to a wash cloth as a wash rag.") But they also delight in

referring to themselves as, for instance, "the king of infixing."



I suspect that such matters are slightly less volatile here than on some

campuses. I was very surprised to learn recently of the reaction to the

original version of the film "American Tongues" on such campuses as Duke,

where apparently showing the version containing the n-word guarantees a

ruckus. I have shown the original version of that film to classes here

for all the years it has been in existence. The only strong reaction to

it I have ever had was by a woman from Newport (Cocke County), who took

exception to the story about the West Virginian and his "you all stuff."

(And, by the way, I always show the film early in the semester to L200

students.)



We laugh at ourselves a lot in Linguistics 200 throughout the semester,

and I think that helps a lot. In this section, there were about 6 true

"hillbillies," about 6 true "Yankees," and about 6 deep Georgia

Southerners (I was the only Texas) -- we all laughted about all the

linguistic differences.



Remember: I live and teach within about two miles of sites where I can

hear native speakers of "dope" meaning "coke," double modals,

a-prefixing, "don't care to" meaning "don't mind," monophthongized /ai/,

etc. I try to capitalize on that fact.



In our oral evaluation exercise at the end of the semester, the students

insisted I must add field trips to the course. They would not take very

long!



Bethany

Bethany K. Dumas, J.D., Ph.D.  | Applied Linguistics, Language & Law

Dep't of English, UT, Knoxville | EMAIL: dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]utk.edu

415 McClung Tower        | (423) 974-6965 | FAX (423) 974-6926

Knoxville, TN 37996-0430    | See Webpage at http://ljp.la.utk.edu