The Norms Of Standard American English In Schools

Standard American English (SAE) is what is taught in most schools in the United States. The norms of SAE usage involve the development of grammar, spelling and pronunciation rules that are typically viewed as “correct” English. Students who speak language varieties can face difficulties in schools if they are held to the absolute norms of SAE. This is mainly due to the fact that their language use, especially if not easily understood, can be evaluated as incorrect by educators. A teacher’s poor perceptions in relations to a student’s varied pronunciation, grammar, and/or word choice could easily lead to misleading beliefs about their intelligence and/or language ability (Crochunis et al., 2002). As a result, a teacher confusing a language difference as a deficit could make a recommendation for a nonstandard speaking student to be evaluated for special

This could impact a student’s overall willingness to participate in class discussions if a conflict of style in present. Unfortunately, a teacher could view this behavior as a lack of understanding, and/or shyness rather than a discrepancy in language styles.
Another challenge a student of a nonstandard dialect may face in class is how language is used to portray stories. There are many cultures that tell stories in a number of different ways compared to the standards in US classroom. For instance, one group may tell a story using a topic-associating style, in which a string of personal account makes up the story (Crochunis et al., 2002). Often in American schools, stories often maintain a topic-centered style of telling a story, in which stories have a clear beginning, middle, and end. In this situation, a student’s expression of storytelling could be devalued, judged as disjointed, and again, evaluated as below the