Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy By Vershawn Ashanti Young
Young and his co-authors persuasively argue for the value and feasibility of allowing students to code-mesh or blend their Englishes (Standard and undervalued) in communication. I especially appreciated the last section which focuses on code-meshing in the college classroom, demonstrating how code-meshing still allows students to learn the stages of the writing process and the importance of rhetorical choice. As a teacher of scientific writing, my only reservations for permitting my students to code-mesh is the lack of code-meshing examples in the scientific literature and that I will be unable to catch ungrammatical errors in students' use of undervalued Englishes. Then again, perhaps my students will teach me on both these points. 176 This book is just amazing. It tells of the struggles of the various Englishes found to be in use in the United States. 176 I appreciated this book very much. So much history regarding the framework of which languages are appropriate or correct and a highly inclusive look at teaching applications. 176 I really enjoyed this book as it opened my eyes to how code-meshing is an extremely important and undervalued teaching method for students who speak different languages and dialects that differ even the slightest bit from Standard English. The prejudices and blatant racism that impact each students ability and confidence to learn was also astounding to read about, and has definitely impacted me as a person. 176 Must-read for anyone teaching nonstandard English speakers. 176
This work presents an empirically grounded argument for a new approach of teaching writing to diverse students in the English language arts classroom. Responding to advocates of the 'code-switching' approach, this book makes the case for 'code-meshing' - allowing students to use standard English, African American English, and other Englishes in formal academic writing and classroom discussions. Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy