Guest Speaker: Dr. Hakim

Guest Speaker: Dr. Hakim
July 8, 2008
“African American Vernacular Speech”


I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Hakim’s lecture about the vernacular speech of African Americans. Learning that there are eleven different dialects of English in the U.S. was extremely surprising, yet I think this is something important to keep in mind as a future English teacher. Today’s classrooms are filled with students from different backgrounds and a different way of speaking (some different languages and some different dialects). I have never been big on correcting grammar when others speak. Perhaps this is because I always felt my grammar was never ‘up to par.’ I appreciated Dr. Hakim stating that dialect has nothing to do with intelligence. I wish more people understood that. I know that as an English teacher I am responsible for making sure my students can successfully function in society. This does mean speaking correctly, as society views speech as an indicator of an educated person. Dr. Hakim mentioned ‘code switching,’ a term I originally heard from Dr. West-White. I truly believe that many African Americans who are successful in business, education, or medicine, for example, are able to code switch. I believe that it is important to teach our youth the art of code switching in order to help them succeed in society. Some may call it “not being real,” but I believe that it is a survival tactic. I am very interested in furthering my knowledge of linguistics. I believe that this could help me as an English teacher understand dialects and also teach an understanding of language.