According to linguist David Crystal in A Little Book of Language, “During the 18th century, the most powerful people in society began to speak and write in a way which they felt to be especially elegant.” As a result of this, ‘There was huge pressure on anybody who wanted to be somebody in society to do the same thing.”

So, it could reasonably be argued that the existence of standard English came about through the desire of the powerful classes to exclude those of lower classes from influential positions in society. 

The knowledge of standard English is now considered basic literacy, and all students are expected to show proficiency in it before they leave school.

Should English teachers be correcting the use of non-standard English in the classroom, in favour of standard English? I think so. 

‘Part of my job as an English teacher’

In my classroom, I expect my students to speak in standard English, using full sentences. If they do not, I will correct them, to make sure that they remember to do it in the future. I believe that is a part of my job as an English teacher:  to make sure my students are capable of speaking and writing standard English to a proficient level.

Does the promotion of standard English in the classroom mean the erasure of non-standard dialects that may be spoken by students at home or with friends? Absolutely not. This is a false dichotomy. As David Crystal says, “We need both street grammar and classroom grammar, if we want to handle all the situations that life throws at us.”

However, in order to prevent a blurring of the grammatical rules of non-standard English and standard English among students who are not proficient, it is imperative to correct their spoken and written English. 

For any student who speaks a dialect of English at home or with friends, it will come naturally to them. However, standard English does not come naturally and very few people actually grow up speaking standard English.” So it has to be learned at school.

Code-switching

Speaking from experience, as someone who spoke Punjabi at home with my parents, and did not begin learning English until the age of six, I was unaware of the difference between non-standard English and standard English. As I was learning standard English in the classroom, I was picking up non-standard English with my friends. 

Was it an injustice for my teachers to correct my use of non-standard English in the classroom? No. By doing that, my teachers gave me a framework from within which I developed my proficiency in standard English. 

That didn’t mean that I lost my use of non-standard English. I think we undermine the intellectual capacity of our students by assuming that prioritising standard English means to undermine non-standard English. Students are perfectly capable of code-switching.

It is worth remembering that English is a global language and therefore it would inevitably require some form of standardisation for foreign leaners. 

Of course, in the process of correcting non-standard English, there is an implicit judgement made that standard English is better. This is not a complicated issue to address. I think students should be made aware that there are certain circumstances where non-standard English is appropriate, but that in the classroom it is more appropriate to speak in standard English. 

The relationship between spoken and written English

Students will only improve at something through deliberate practice. It would seem counterintuitive for me to allow students to speak non-standard English in my classroom, while expecting them to write academic essays in standard English. 

While spoken and written standard English is not exactly the same, there is a relationship between how students answer questions verbally and how they translate this into writing. If not corrected, students will write how they speak when answering academic questions. If I allow them to answer verbally in non-standard English, I can usually find some of this translated into their written English when they write it down.

I have found this issue minimised by asking students to answer verbal questions in full sentences. This allows them to model their answer to me before they write it down. Good oracy of standard English helps students to write better academic essays. 

In a classroom where there may be students of lower prior attainment still learning the basics of standard English - especially EAL learners like me - the consequences of allowing non-standard English to sit alongside standard English in the classroom are far greater. It is very easy for misconceptions to become embedded, if they are not actively challenged. And how can I challenge these misconceptions if I assume the student can seamlessly switch between standard and non-standard English?

I think the idea that teachers who correct non-standard English are being discriminatory and punitive is ludicrous. If my teachers had not corrected my use of slang in the classroom, I probably would not be an English teacher right now - and that slang would have afforded me little comfort. 

It is a linguistic thought experiment that exists in a vacuum devoid of the complex realities of teaching English in the classroom. It will be standard English that improves the life chances of my students. And, ultimately, that is what I signed up to teaching for.

Qamar Shafiq is a secondary English teacher in the Midlands