Midtrack 9th Grade Dialect Discrimination Lesson

Objective: To define the use of language as a socially controlled, normative system to a 9th grade class, and have them understand the difference between "high bred" London accents and Cockney. Once an understanding of these dialects and their link to class discrimination is achieved, the lesson will move on to their own encounters with dialect in their lives. Journaling and class discussion will lead to an understanding of what dialect is; and why it sometimes leads to unfounded discrimination.

Introduction: I will play a short clip from the film My Fair Lady, as an attention getter, with the class's attention pointed towards the ways the characters use language and subsequently treat each other. Then, the class receives a lecture on the social queues gained from language. Covered is how the gentrified Londoner immediately assumes that the speaker of the cockney accent is uneducated and indicts the woman for damaging the "true" language that only he, of course, has the education to have mastered.

The sound file here is an example of a mild London cockney accent.

Task: The students will be asked to take notes on the aspects of this dialect, including the dropped "h"s at the beginning of words, such as "happy" becoming "ah-ppy". And mark the use of intrusive "r"s, found in "sto-ry", and glottilised "t"s, as in "lots".

Now I would tell a story of my own dealings with my mother's southern dialect. She would always use the turn of phrase "ink pen" instead of pen, but I did not understand why. Then one day when I was older, she asked me for a pin, but I brought her a pen. It was then that I realized that in her southern dialect the pronunciation for "pen" and "pin" are identical, both sounding like "pen". So, she says "ink pen" so people can differentiate that she is not talking about a "pin". The students will now journal individually on their own encounters with and assumptions concerning dialects. I will then lead a discussion on the impact dialect has had on our lives, with a focus being kept on the idea that there is not platonic ideal for language.

Conclusion: After participating in the discussion the student's personal ideas will have been reshaped with this new information. They will have an understanding of the social context in which language is used and will consequently understand that discrimination based on people's speech patterns is unfounded.