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education.guardian.co.uk
June 23,
2006
Why We Should
Mind Their Language
by Sarah Young, English language
teacher in Greece
'Bad' language is a part of everyday
speech, but not to teach it could give offence, says Sara Young.
Between the covers of the plethora of English-language teaching materials
there remains a murky area of expression that is - albeit understandably
- rarely tackled. Learners can turn to pages on everything from simple
greetings to formal letter writing, but they will look in vain for a section
on extreme slang or "bad" language.
Leaving aside the theoretical linguistic
debate that a word cannot inherently be "bad", teachers need to confront
the dilemma of what exactly to do with such vocabulary when confronted
by it. Surely, the argument goes, such words do not want formal introduction
by a teacher. And anyway, won't students pick up this kind of thing from
the television or from music?
Therein lies the problem. I was amazed to find the unspeakable "n" word
used by one of my students recently in his description of a foreign man
he had seen in the street. When I asked him about it, he protested, "But
I found it in a song!" He had been unaware that the word can be offensive.
If we accept that students are likely to meet racist or offensive language
in their English acquisition outside the classroom, then maybe it is our
responsibility to alert our students to the impact these words can have.
In a classroom we are polite and restrained. Outside, especially for learners
studying in Britain, confusion abounds. With the proliferation of what
were once considered taboo words in everything from television shows to
newspapers, students think that such vocabulary is part of everyday discourse.
Of course it is, but it is not vocabulary to be used indiscriminately.
Moreover, like any learnt idiomatic phrase, what passes for amusing or
apt coming from a native speaker can sound oddly awkward in the mouth of
someone who is not. But how should a teacher approach this topic? After
all, it doesn't exactly slot comfortably into the syllabus just after advanced
uses of modal verbs. We may find the subject introduced for us. As anyone
teaching younger students knows, they like nothing better than to "experiment"
with phrases they have picked up, to try to provoke a reaction by coming
out with expressions said only for their shock factor.
Rather than ignoring or admonishing, both of which can prove counter-productive,
the teacher can demonstrate immunity to such language and at the same time
curtail any future behaviour problems that its use can provoke. When I
found myself in this situation, I asked the whole class to write down every
single "bad" word they could think of. No word was taboo. One advantage
of our impromptu lesson was that the language in class cleaned up a bit.
The exercise's more immediate and important benefit was that there ensued
a debate led by the students about which words were mildly acceptable,
and under what circumstances - with friends on the school bus, for example
- and which were most likely to cause offence.
From there, the discussion progressed on to one about the general use of
appropriate and inappropriate language; with more mature students the topic
may lead to the use of double entendre and euphemism so beloved of headline
writers (newspapers are a mine of examples).
This in turn makes student more aware of colloquialism and the grey area
of polite and slang. What may be acceptable in the student's first language
may not be so welcome in English or vice versa. Nor may the idea of politically
correct language exist in the student's L1. Combined with a lesson introducing
awareness of racial overtones, the subject of taboo language and its changing
use can help give some guidance to living in a multicultural environment.
Another approach is to introduce the topic of taboo vocabulary as part
of a lesson on colloquialisms and idioms, to be continued as long as the
teacher feels that she and her students are mutually comfortable.
Swearing is also a highly personal matter. What is acceptable to one person
may be beyond the pale to another. Similarly, some cultures are more comfortable
with colourful language than others and a teacher must be aware of such
sensibilities.
At the very least, a case can be made for some guidance if students are
to participate and interact in everyday English. Even if we simply give
our students a list of such words, following the lead of those dictionaries
that employ a useful series of asterisks alongside those words to be used
with care, it may be of help.
Language changes and if contemporary reporting and entertainment, to say
nothing of literature from Philip Larkin to Irvine Welsh, contain such
words, who are we to censor them in the modern language classroom?
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