In order to write this paper, we must first understand the distinction between the “Englishes” of the world: England English, Global or Imperialist English (more on that later), and American English. The issue at hand is that of English-learning in the United States, and whether or not it should be standardized, and the greater question of whether or not English as a language should be standardized in the U.S. When we look at great writers and teachers like Garrard McClendon and Stanley Fish, they argue that English teaching and learning should be standardized to fit the rules of traditional “England English,” since that is the most valued variation of the language, as its founding dialect. The writers of Students Right to Their Own Language, though, argue that schools cannot choose a student’s language for them and that standard, American English may, in fact, be a myth [3]. This essay will argue that American English is a myth. Due to the foundation of the United States of America, English language education cannot and should not be standardized.
First, let’s explore the origins of English language in America. In the 1600s, Britain sent fleets of ships across the ocean to establish the original 13 colonies in America where, unbeknownst to them, Native American tribes had been living for years prior, speaking their own languages and practicing their own cultures, separate and oblivious to that of the British colonizers (history.com). The colonizers spoke English, of course, but an English apart from British foundations as babies were born and the Transatlantic Slave Trade caused a mixing of people and languages from other cultures. This “mixing” continued as the new “Americans” began Western expansion and, eventually, overtook the Native American establishments in the West. As we see in Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, Native American children were taken from their families and brought into “English” boarding schools where they would be “civilized,” according to the civilization of imperialist Britain and, subsequently, imperialist U.S.A.
This English language imperialism is not lost amongst societies outside of the United States and the, now, United Kingdom as written in the study “Teaching English as a Non-Imperial Language in an Underprivileged Public School in Spain,” where the teachers and researchers attempted to relate the English language to students in one of the poorest schools in the city of Valencia. The study itself explores the idea of American English experiencing a shift from neo-imperial to neo-liberal, meaning it’s marketed as necessary, in all parts of the world, for success and prosperity [4]. The authors put it best when they write, “colonial dreams [of Britain], we could say, were fully realized only in the postcolonial world.” [3] Is it necessarily disadvantageous for one language to be the “ruling” language of the world? Perhaps not, but it is disadvantageous to reject the existence of other languages in a country that is prosperous due to the “melting pot” of cultures that founded it.
The notion of American English as a myth is a sentient one in a historical context. The United States has become a world power and been prosperous because of the classic “melting pot,” not in spite of it. The immigrants from Ireland and Italy boosted the economy and drove the Industrial Revolution, and they came speaking their own languages and broken English that contributed to the kind of English we speak today. In essence, no one is truly from the United States and no one speaks the traditional British English that the colonizers originally spoke. The teaching of “standard American English” is, in itself, subjective to the region it’s being taught in. Standardizing and requiring traditional England English in the classroom demands students to accept the imperialism dreamed about by 1600s England. English language is constantly shifting as we see with new words being added to the dictionary. If vocabulary can “officially” change, why can’t traditional English?
Garrard McClendon’s argument is valid in a racial context. His idea that success can come from speaking traditional, academic English comes from inherent racism instilled in our country’s values, which lends itself to the imperialism argument. The argument goes: “English is superior because it is spoken by white people in The United Kingdom, a once-world power that founded the current-world power with white people who also spoke England English, and the people who didn’t speak England English were the black people brought over in the Transatlantic Slave Trade (outsiders, aliens), and they were treated as a sub-class. English is still the most dominant and powerful language in the world, so people who speak ‘proper’ English are the most dominant and powerful as well.” This foundation has carried through both to McClendon’s time in 2007 and present-day 2020 where white people are still the most powerful group, regardless of whether or not they are the majority group in this country. In 2019, white men held 71 out of the 100 seats in the Senate but are only 30% of the total United States population (theguardian.com). Where McClendon’s argument fails is that he believes we can ignore the historical context. The entire idea of English standardization is based in historical context, and the reason his organization exists is because of historical inequalities that permeate present attitudes.
The politics of English education are based in the idea of power. In a fantastical way, it’s as if the country’s values haven’t caught up with the values of its youngest generations; values of integration, cultural acceptance, open-mindedness, and the original “melting pot” this country was built on. The youngest generations don’t value tradition and racial inequalities in the same way as their grandparents, but their grandparents are still running the country. “The claim that any one dialect is unacceptable amounts to an attempt of one social group to exert its dominance over another,” and we see this exertion of dominance presently with Mexican Americans and whether or not we should standardize English teaching for them. We saw this example in Aja Martinez’s “Critical Race Theory as Allegory” wherein the main character assimilated to white culture to achieve success, and still failed in the end. Although it’s a fictional story, it proves that whiteness or, in terms of this essay, English language does not equivalate success for all, only for the select few, mainly the “white male” selection and even the “white female” selection. The reason the politics of English education are predominantly for standardizing English teaching to traditional England English is because white English-speakers are still in control of this country, and they still have the imperialist ideals ingrained in their values. Standardizing English education will only subject students to the values of the colonizers and not those of the United States Founding Fathers: freedom and equality.
I don’t have the answers for how to incorporate multilingualism and multiculturalism into the education system. I am not an educator and I strongly believe it’s simpler and more efficient to continue teaching standard English in classrooms as it is still the dominant world language and the most valued language in this country. Maybe, in fact, my perspective is contradictory as I am a white, English-speaking female who doesn’t experience the same prejudices and struggles as non-white, non-English-speaking members of this country. Again, I don’t have the answers. However, I do know that the research in this essay suggests that the standardization of English language teaching in America is a direct result of imperialist ideals of the colonizers and I, for one, do not want impressionable minds subjected to those values. I believe as new generations come into power, we will see a shift towards multicultural education, but it will be years and the building of an entirely new system to see all the cultures this country is made up of valued equally both in and out of the classroom. In short, politics are currently white and English-speaking, so English education is being pushed to assimilate to that. When politics changes, so will the classroom.
Sources
History.com Editors. (2010, June 17). The 13 Colonies. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/thirteen-colonies
Robinson, N. (2019, May 20). Rich white men rule America. How much longer will we tolerate that for? | Nathan Robinson. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/20/rich-white-men-rule-america-minority-rule
Castro, L. S. V. D., Bodi, V. C., & Montejano, A. H. (2018). Teaching English as a Non-Imperial Language in an Underprivileged Public School in Spain. TESOL Quarterly, 52(4), 943–970. doi: 10.1002/tesq.442
Students Right to Their Own Language. (1975). College English, 36(6), 709. doi: 10.2307/374965
Madie Mento's WSC 119 Blog 