Preston Williams English 1101 Professor Rieman November 12, 2012 SRTOL Personal Statement: I believe in a students right

to their own language. With the opportunities offer ed in America, we have lots of people coming to our country to study and find a job here. We need to be aware of these individuals. The predisposition that one dialect is better than another points to the effort of one social group going alon g with the status quo and saying standard English is all that is tolerated because its always been that way. For the business world, however, it is beneficial for these non-Standard dialects to conform in order to be successful . This is not t o say that they should give up their culture. This just means that they may need it to function in America . Geographic reasons for dialects: There are many reasons that dialects can form. One of which is geographic reason s. One way geography can affect the dialects that form is through natural bounda ries. Natural boundaries like rivers, lakes, mountains, and valleys can separate groups of speakers and determine the routes they take and where they settle (su ch as Sea Islands off the Carolina coast). Settlement is also a way that geography contributes to dialects. North American dialectal differences can be traced back to dialect differences that existed in the British Isles. These settlements went in phases: Phase 1: move into area with attractive environment, original culture Phase 2: occupy all land, new cultural identity, cohesive society (may lead toel imination of established cultures, e.g. Native Americans) Phase 3: regional populations define themselves with respect to others (culture, commerce, transportation), localized with unique identity Different settlers came from everywhere around to the world to America. During t he 1600s Scotland and there Northumbrian dialect settled in America. Ireland sett led in 1200. The first crucial settlements in North America were in the 17th cen tury. South African dialects came to the front in about 1820. Waless dialects tra ce back to their settlement in the mid-19th century. Today, we have immigrants c oming from countries that never settled in America when the country was forming. Some have even started coming here in the last decade . I expect that we will s ee dialects continue to change and maybe even start incorporating foreign dialec ts from these new incoming countries. The thing about dialects is they are always changing. The dialects we hear toda y will not be the same in one hundred years. Today, we could contribute more prof essional dialects to the business world. This may be the reason that dialects are more standard when they are closer to business cities. This business city theory resembles a ripple effect in water. An idea is formed in the city, and it slowly spreads and fades as you leave the city . Social Dominance The predisposition that one dialect is better than another points to the effort of one social group going along with the status quo and saying standard English is a ll that is tolerated because its always been that way. I personally feel that if a group of people were to say that there English is better than another persons, it would be wrong. With that said, I think that the reason the present generatio n believes there is a Standard English is because that is how it has always been . Our ancestors passed down the theory that there is a certain way of life that is acceptable and thats why we think its acceptable to judge their type of languag e to be superior to the rest . Profiling The fact that people profile each other based on the way they speak is wrong. Th e way someone talks does not clearly illustrate their intelligence. A friend of

mine from high school that was in my Physics class spoke a type of English that some people in my high school classified as unintelligent. In reality he was one o f the smartest people in the school. He was by far the smartest person in my Phy sics class. He is now at Georgia Tech on a full scholarship. This just proves th at we should quantify someone as being less intelligent just because of the way they talk . Linguistics Linguistics, as defined by Merriam-Websters Dictionary, is the study of human spe ech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language. The st udy of linguistics is very important to the present culture especially with the current amount of people coming to America from other countries. While discussing Linguistics in class, I conducted a little experiment just to i llustrate the differences in the way people talk in reference to International d ifferences. The experiment consisted of Me, Saeed, and Xinrong. Obviously dialec ts were not the only differences between us. In fact, the languages we grew up w ith were different. I grew up with native English here in America. Saeed grew up with Arabic in Saudi Arabia. Xinrong grew up with Mandarin Chinese in China. I asked the group to write a someone went somewhere statement (someone referring to a common name in their country and somewhere being a common name of a place in t heir country). The results were the following: Me- Tom went to the grocery store. Saeed- Ahmed went to Jeddah. Xinrong- Xiao Ming goes to Xian. As you can see, not only are there dialectal barriers in todays English, but ther e are also vocabulary differences . Business vs. Learning In todays business world, the common dialect that is acceptable is what people call Standard English . Unfortunately, todays corporate America has created its own bia s towards people who cannot speak this Standard English. In my opinion, this is wrong. Unfortunately, I dont think that it will ever change. As I mentioned befor e, the reason our generation continues to say that Standard English is the only English acceptable does not point to one social group trying to exert its domina nce over the rest. I believe this generation is just going along with the status quo. The mindsets of these people are that this is how it has always been. The problem with this is that we have a lot of new immigrants who are trying to make it in the corporate world. Not all of them know Standard English but, as we all know, they could be some of the smartest people in the world . Dialect Tells a Story One reason that we should not insist on English in school and the business world is because of the way people write . When people write and have a different dia lect you are able to tell when you read it. The way they write also tells you a story. It can explain a persons opinion on an issue when you are aware of their b ackground. Conclusion In conclusion, I believe in a students right to their own language. Whether it be in the business world or in the classroom, a students native dialect should be u nderstood and dealt with. Although I believe this, corporate America does not. W hile in school, although I dont like it this way, I think students should have to learn Standard English to be able to survive and get a job in the real world. I t the inevitable truth that Preston, I like that you format your paper so clearly herethe sections work well to let yo ur reader know what you are aiming to do at each point in your paper. You have two competing issues here. One is the issue of English as a language sp oken in the US and the idea that non-native English speakers move to the US for various reasons; Two it this issue of different dialects spoken within English a

nd how we accommodate for those in the classroom. Here are my revision suggestions: make your statement more clearly focused on st udents rights to their own English dialect and dont confuse it with languages othe r than English while paying attention to the classroom. You can certainly recogn ize the business world and how a schools job can be seen as a place to grow emplo yees, but Id like to see you deal more explicitly with the idea of students, teac hers, and dialectical differences before you move into the idea of what the busi ness world expects. It seems like you have included some information from sources here and you need to make sure you cite that work. Id also encourage you to read back through the o ther work youve read and written regarding this issue to pull from in this paper. I am happy to talk through these ideas with you. Please write a talk back to my comments and then we can see if this is a paper you want to include in your port folio.