Friday, October 24, 2008

what is standard english?

One of Fecho's students in his article had a particular insight that challenges standard english. The student acknowledged that standard english has a good purpose, but that it was invented for and by white people without any consideration for other users of the language. Even though learning standard english is a struggle for various people, it is typically easier for whites to acquire it than for blacks because white students use it at home and in schools. Comedian Eddie Izzard paraphrased England's day of imperialism as simply sticking flags in different places and calling all those places England, regardless of the people already living there. In this way, I believe that while a standard has the potential to unite language users, it has the same potential to disconnect them.