ABSTRACT
Oral and written texts are shaped not only by the specific language contained within them but also by the ideological environments from which they emerge. In secondary language arts classrooms, these texts are often discussed without considering the language ideologies—or the social conceptualizations about language itself (e.g., views on correct usage, the stereotypes and biases arising from variations of standard use)—within and around them. In this chapter, we hope to demonstrate how language ideologies may be broached within secondary literature courses. Specifically, we present activities using excerpts from commonly taught American literature that attempt to recreate regional speech in tandem with audio clips of authentic regional speakers from the Dictionary of American Regional English archives (henceforth DARE). We show how the DARE interviews, publicly and easily accessible, can enhance literary study. 1 Using both types of “texts” allows for discussions, writing prompts, and research activities that raise students’ awareness of language ideologies from which the literature emerged. Additionally, it offers a space for perceptions that may be part of the students’ beliefs or the mainstream culture to be acknowledged and explored. Students then have the opportunity to see how ideologies may influence both their interpretations of literature and their views of individuals who share dialect features of literary characters. As students are guided through the linguistic choices ascribed to characters and are helped to see writers’ choices not as neutral artifacts but as ideologically biased representations, the study of literature is both “enlightened and enlivened” (Simpson, 2003, p. xii). 2
