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Shifting Paradigms Starting with Self 
By Megan Lewis 

mlewis58@student.gsu.edu    
Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia 

 
 

In this article, a practicing teacher and doctoral student reflects on her attitudes 
about English language learners, and she analyzes how those attitudes 
influenced the relationships she had with past students. She also discusses how 
interactions with those students caused her attitudes to shift and change while 
giving advice to current classroom teachers. 

Keywords: English language learners, shifting paradigms about language 

 

                                                            Introduction 

The story of my language epistemology seems fairly straightforward. I am a 

middle class, White girl, raised by two parents who are both college educated. 

What, if any, language challenges could I have faced growing up, attending school, 

and working as a teacher? As it turns out, quite a few. Not only am I a middle 

class, White girl, but I am a Southern middle class, White girl. Instead of getting a 

shopping cart at the grocery store, we always put our food in a buggy. Whenever 

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mailto:mlewis58@student.gsu.edu


we were getting ready to leave our house on Sunday mornings, we were fixin’ to 

go to church. Any verbalized criticism was prefaced or followed by “bless his/her 

heart.”  

During my childhood, though, things began to change in my community. 

Many out-of-state companies moved to Georgia, bringing many of their out-of-

state employees. New friends from Michigan and New York often criticized the 

way native Southerners speak. I remember my aunt telling us she felt very 

insulted and left a restaurant when the waitress said she would never be able to 

understand “people down here.” At the same time, new friends from different 

countries moved into our community, speaking new languages I had never heard 

before. Their language practices also existed on the margins as many stores, 

restaurants, and schools operated under an “English Only” policy. 

Reading this, you would think I would be overwhelmed by the injustice of it 

all. The fact that another group of people came to my home and told me my way 

of speaking was wrong should engender feelings of anger and indignation. To see 

my new friends discriminated against because they spoke languages other than 

English should have empowered me to stand up for my linguistic rights as well as 

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those of others, but that is not what happened. Instead, I turned to those more 

linguistically marginalized than me, and I criticized their ways of speaking.  

I have, since then, evolved, but I cannot truly understand how my 

paradigms regarding language have shifted until I examine my past language 

experiences. I have divided my story into three acts. Act One, called Othered 

English, describes an incident in my early childhood which caused me to 

internalize negative attitudes about my own ways of speaking. Act Two, called 

Conventional Wisdom, explores the time in my life when I subscribed to an 

English-only way of thinking. Act Three, called Language Awakening, analyzes 

events which began to change and evolve my attitude about language. Finally, I 

conclude with what I have learned and make recommendations for teachers.  

Act One: Othered English 

 I am 7 years old. I am the youngest child in my family, and the youngest 

grandchild on both sides of the family. My Uncle Jeff and Aunt Pam have just had 

a baby, and I am thrilled. Babies are so cute and precious; I can’t wait to hold him 

and play with him and read him books. My mother takes me to the hospital, and I 

get to see him for the first time. I am beaming. I am a proud cousin. 

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 A week later, we are gathered at my grandmother’s house. Jeff shows the 

video of Steven’s birth. I am in the video, holding Steven and wondering why he 

doesn’t have any teeth.  

 “Wow!” Jeff says, “You sound so country!” Everyone laughs, and I am 

embarrassed. Being country means being stupid. It means that I am not smart, 

which is valued in my family of teachers. From this point on, I try not to sound 

country. 

According to Preston (2013), attitudes about language variation often 

coincide with attitudes about groups of people. He studied the attitudes of 

Americans from different areas of the country and asked participants in his study 

to create maps of the United States by labeling geographic regions. Participants 

from Michigan labeled areas in the south Rebel City and Hillbillies. These labels 

reflect stereotypes about Southerners being ignorant and racist. Furthermore, 

these labels fail to take into account the ethnic and linguistic variety found among 

Southerners.  

Unfortunately, speakers within linguistically marginalized groups 

sometimes adopt negative attitudes such as these. In the vignette above, my 

uncle judged me by the way I spoke on his home video. By characterizing my 

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speech as “country”, my uncle was sending several implicit messages. First, 

people living in the “country” have historically had access to fewer resources and 

opportunities. Many people living in the “country” work in agriculture, a job that 

pays little with few chances for upward mobility. According to Ash (2013), 

occupation is a major defining feature of social class, and those using non-

Standard or Othered varieties of English typically are considered members of the 

working class. Based on these factors, many “country” people are wrongfully 

characterized as being uneducated and low class. My grandmother, for instance, 

was the daughter of a sharecropper but graduated from high school. She was 

eligible for nursing school, however, school tuition kept her from realizing that 

dream. Therefore, my grandmother was not stupid or uneducated. She simply 

lacked the financial resources to further her education.   

Though he may not have meant it, I interpreted my uncle’s comment to 

mean that I sounded uneducated and poor, and I internalized these negative 

stereotypes. As a result, I began neutralizing my Southern accent in almost all 

contexts. By making these conscious choices regarding my language use, I 

developed an identity as a smart girl who would achieve success as an adult 

(Kiesling, 2013; Kirkham, 2013).  

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Act Two: Conventional Wisdom 

 I am a first year teacher, and I am struggling. I am failing to connect with 

one of my classes of 7th grade students. When I was in school, I was taught to sit 

still, be quiet, and pay attention. I assume that these behaviors show that students 

are learning, and part of my struggle comes from placing these same expectations 

on my students. I feel like I have no control of the classroom, so one day when the 

students begin conversing in Spanish, I say, “Excuse me! Speak English!” 

 This statement is met with resounding boos. “You’re a racist, Miss!” one 

student yells from the back of the classroom. 

That night, I go home and cry. Not because my feelings are hurt, but 

because I realize my students are right.  

According to Chambers (2013), “all societies tolerate and foster social 

judgments of language use, and typically integrate them into communal 

ethos…where they become part of the institutional mandates of schools, 

government offices, and professional societies” (p. 4). In the United States, these 

social judgments tend to divide speakers into three groups: speakers of Standard 

English, speakers of non-Standard English, and speakers of other languages. 

Standard English speakers find their dialect of English being spoken in the schools, 

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government offices, and professional societies Chambers (2013) speaks of. The 

inability to communicate effectively in this dialect denies people access to what 

Delpit (1995) calls the “culture of power,” which affords greater privileges to 

speakers of Standard English and places non-Standard English speakers and 

speakers of other languages at greater disadvantages.  

The terms Standard and non-Standard English are problematic within 

themselves. The term Standard English gives higher status to this group of 

speakers. It assumes that this dialect of English is a standard, to which all other 

speakers should aspire. The term non-Standard English assumes a deficit view. It 

implies that speakers of these dialects make haphazard mistakes in their speaking 

even though dialects such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) follow 

rules and patterns that are not haphazard at all (Fought, 2013). In the rest of this 

paper, I will refer to Standard English as the power dialect of English, drawing on 

Delpit’s notion of the “culture of power”. Non-standard dialects will be referred 

to as Othered dialects to show their social location on the margins.  

Negative attitudes associated with the language practices of speakers of 

Othered dialects and speakers of other languages have the potential to destroy 

the positive relationships teachers have with these speakers. When I told my 

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students to speak English only, I believed that I was giving them access to the 

culture of power. How will they ever succeed if they do not speak English, which is 

required in schools, government offices, and businesses? Once they stop speaking 

Spanish and focus on English, then they will acquire the power dialect at a much 

faster rate. When the students pushed back at my request to speak English and 

called me a racist, I realized that my thinking was flawed. 

 While I might have fooled myself into thinking I was helping my students, 

when confronted, I realized what I was really trying to do was control them by 

forbidding them from speaking in a language I did not know. Since I had struggled 

with classroom management from the beginning of the year, this request truly 

represented a last ditch effort to get students to sit still, be quiet, and pay 

attention. I had wrongly equated compliance and control with learning, which 

ultimately led to chaos. Though it was extremely painful at the time, this 

experience helped me to begin to examine and analyze the climate of my 

classroom and my attitudes about language.    

 I would encourage other teachers to reflect on the ways in which they 

encourage students to respond during class. Are these ways aimed at getting 

students involved in learning or are they meant to control behavior? If the answer 

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is the latter, then teachers need to reflect on how these practices could be 

changed to encourage students to participate without marginalizing their 

language practices.  

Act Three: Language Awakening 

It is my third year teaching. I am trying to learn important lessons from my 

past mistakes. I am still teaching English language learners and making conscious 

efforts to welcome Spanish and other languages like Vietnamese into my 

classroom. The effects of this new outlook are amazing. My students and I get 

along great! They find out my birthday and bring food, so we can celebrate 

together. At Christmas time, they make me cards, and on Valentine’s Day, I get 

flowers. 

One challenge I still have, though, is engaging my students in writing. “I 

don’t like writing, Miss,” or “I don’t know what to say” are often said when it is 

time to write. I decide to share with my students some of my own writing: a story 

of my most embarrassing moment. In this story, my 4th grade teacher throws a 

chalkboard eraser when my back is turned. It hits me on the butt, and everyone in 

the class sees and laughs. To make matters worse, the teacher apologizes in a way 

I find very insincere as he is still smiling and laughing while saying sorry. 

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As I finish reading this memoir, I ask the students to tell me their thoughts. 

One student raises his hand. He stands up and says enthusiastically, “I would pick 

up it and throw it at him. I would say, ‘you bastard!’” Some children nod in 

agreement. Others, who understand the weight a word like bastard carries, know 

that saying it is against school rules. They know cussing in class gets a two-day 

stay in In School Suspension (ISS). They look at me with shock on their faces as if to 

say, “You’re going to let him get away with that?” 

One student finally says, “You let him off, Miss! You let him off!” 

“What did I do?” the enthusiastic student says. 

“You say a bad word, man!” 

“I did?” He looks at me, realizing what the consequences will be. He turns 

red and starts apologizing, but I interrupt him.   

“Yes, you did say a bad word,” I tell him, “But you’re right. He was acting 

like the word you said.” 

Even though I had made strides to make my classroom an inviting place for 

speakers of all languages, I still had students who were reluctant to speak to me 

or with others. Their affective filters often were heightened during my class 

because it focused on the study of English (Krashen, 1987). While some students 

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were fearless, others would ask their friends to ask me questions because they 

were afraid of saying the wrong thing. They also knew I only spoke English and 

could not converse with me in their first language. 

The enthusiastic student in the vignette above had attained a high level of 

English proficiency using grammatical structures. He was able to produce spoken 

language that followed the rules of the power dialect. However, he did not 

understand the social implications of using certain vocabulary. He genuinely did 

not think the word “bastard” was a curse word. When I saw him fully realize what 

he said, I took a moment to reflect before acting. If I showed disapproval, he 

would feel further embarrassment. If I wrote him up, I would scare those students 

unwilling to talk to me even further. Mahar (2001) discusses how students who 

lack access to the power dialect often face disciplinary issues as they negotiate 

the social aspects of school. Did I want this student, who strongly engaged in the 

activity, to be punished for relating to my story?  

The point of this class was to encourage (not force) students to use English. 

If they feared being written up because they did not fully understand the 

language, then I would be the only one doing any talking, or I would experience 

the same type of push-back that was so common in my classroom my first year 

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teaching. I decided not to punish the student and to agree with his word choice 

because I wanted to show him and his classmates that they should not fear 

participating in class discussion, especially when they were willing to take a 

chance using the new language they were acquiring. I never had another instance 

of cussing in class again and noticed more students participating in discussion. 

Once I established that students were safe to take risks with language, they began 

to do so.  

At this point, I really began listening to and appreciating the contributions 

of my English Language Learners. Looking back, I feel like this moment marked an 

important shift in my thinking about language. I realized it is impossible to 

consider language without context. When I look at the context surrounding the 

enthusiastic student’s response to my story, his reaction was appropriate. From 

that point on, I tried to discard some of my more rigid rules regarding language 

use (and school rules). Anytime language use became an issue in my classroom, I 

tried to consider all the contributing factors before making judgments about what 

was appropriate or correct.  

I would also encourage other teachers to consider context before reacting 

to some of the sticky language situations that occur in our day-to-day interactions 

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with students. We should always ask ourselves what the purpose of the 

discussion activity is and how students were responding to that purpose before 

we react. If, like the student in the vignette above, their response aligns with the 

intended purpose, then I would recommend erring on the side of forgiveness if 

the delivery is not ideal. I also recommend explicitly telling students how their 

language choices could lead to misunderstandings in the future. Though I did not 

punish my enthusiastic student, I made sure he understood that his word choice 

could lead to trouble. While I wanted to encourage his participation in class 

discussion, I also did not want to set him up for future trouble if he ever used that 

word in school again. By fully considering context, teachers can help students 

develop their understandings of language in a safe, respectful classroom 

environment.   

Conclusion 

My understandings and attitudes about language have changed and shifted 

dramatically over the course of my lifetime. As I look ahead, I am excited at the 

prospect of continuing to grow and learn. Along the way, I will use these 

important lessons to guide my future thinking: I will not allow the judgments of 

other to influence the way I see myself. When I judge others based on the ways 

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they use language, I rob myself of getting to know their authentic selves. 

Language is a means of expression, not control. Always consider context when 

listening to what others are saying.  

Other teachers can read about my past experiences. They can see the 

lessons I have learned based on the interactions I have had with my students. But, 

I would also encourage them to reflect on their personal experiences with 

language and with their students as I have done. What lessons can be learned 

from your stories? How can you continue to grow based on these experiences? 

How will you help students see that all of their language practices have value and 

meaning both in and outside the classroom?  

  

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References 

Ash, S. (2013). Social class. In J.K. Chambers and N. Schilling (Eds.), The handbook 

of language variation and change (2nd ed.) (pp. 350-367). Malden, MA: 

Wiley-Blackwell. 

Chambers, J.K. (2013). Studying language variation: An informal epistemology. In 

J.K. Chambers and N. Schilling (Eds.), The handbook of language variation 

and change (2nd ed.) (pp. 1-15). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New  

York, NY: The New Press. 

Fought, C. (2013). Ethnicity. In J.K. Chambers and N. Schilling (Eds.), The handbook 

of language variation and change (2nd ed.) (pp. 388-406). Malden, MA: 

Wiley-Blackwell. 

Kiesling, S.F. (2013). Constructing Identity. In J.K. Chambers and N. Schilling (Eds.), 

The handbook of language variation and change (2nd ed.) (pp. 448-467). 

Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 

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Kirkham, S. & Moore, E. (2013). Adolescence. In J.K. Chambers and N. Schilling 

(Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (2nd ed.) (pp. 277-

296). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Krashen, S.D. (1987). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New 

York, NY: Prentice-Hall International. 

Mahar, D. (2001). Positioning in a middle school culture: Gender, race, social 

class, and power. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, (3), 200-209. 

Preston, D.R. (2013). Language with an attitude. In J.K. Chambers and N. Schilling  

(Eds.), The handbook of language variation and change (2nd ed.) (pp. 157-

182). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 

 

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