Chapter 6, "The Educational System"

1)  What is "appropriacy reasoning" and how is it acted out in the schools?  What is your opinion about it?  Some quotes that I found particularly interesting:

    "...the work that comes along with making teaching a dialogue rather than a lecture" (p. 111, emphasis added)

    "Appropriacy must be accepted on some level in education, but it is crucial that we recognize and acknowledge the value system underlying the messages we give children... [...] but to call the use of the language inappropriate is to become complicit in the process of rejection." (p. 114)

A question I asked myself was, In what kind of language does Lippi-Green expect her students to write their papers?

2)  On p. 118, Lippi-Green suggests that even if all children of immigrants in the U.S. were to become totally bilingual, equally proficient in English and in their first language, there would still be language problems in schools based on the variety of English and different accents.  We can see examples in Hawai'ian Creole English and in Black Vernacular English.

3)  Have you ever had a TA or an instructor whose English was difficult to understand?  What are your thoughts about this?  In particular, be able to comment on Box 6.2 on p. 125 and Rubin's 1992 experiment reported on pp. 126-129.

Chapter 7, "The information industry"

4) Lippi-Green states that mass media "plays a major role in the communication and transmission of social values, and the propogation and defense of national culture*" (p. 133), perhaps more so than public schooling, and that news media vigorously advance the notion that language should be homogenous and that linguistic assimilation is necessary and positive for the greater social good.  In this way, the news media establishes itself as crucial as the educational system to the well-being of the nation-state.

She then describes three examples, "Texts" about language that have appeared in U.S. media.  Next, she makes extensive reference to one article about HCE.  According to her, what were the underlying motivations for the article about HCE?

5)  As I'm typing this, That 70s Show is on television.  The character Fez is often mocked for his accent and foreignness.  Can you think of other pop culture references to accent?  Are they positive or negative?  If you read Chapter 5, you saw Lippi-Green's examination of how accents are used in Disney movies.

* The current attack on Iraq provides us with yet another example.

Chapter 8, "Language ideology in the workplace and the judicial system"

6) Describe how Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against workplace discrimination based on a person's national accent.  What change would some people within the EEOC like to see made to this law?

7)  Note that Title VII disallows discrimination on the basis of national origin accent, but it allows employers to discriminate when an accent impedes communication and therefore a persons's ability to carry out a job.

       * How often do you think accent discrimination takes place because communication is truly impeded, and how often is this argument probably just a front?

        * In your opinion, is it ever justified for an employer to discriminate based on a person's accent?  If so, think of a few examples.

8)  Do you agree with the author that, in the cases she cites on p. 160, "the judges who wrote these opinions were willing to depend on their own expertise in matters of language in a way they would never presume to in matters of genetics, or mechanical engineering, or psychology"?

9)  What do you think about the outcome of Ms. Mandhare's case?  Note the author's criticism that had she been denied to ride public transportation and instead offered a bicycle, we might feel more outraged.  Do you think this comparison is valid?

10)  In the cases of Kahakua and Staruch, the author claims that the media was allowed "to set its own standards on the basis of personal preferences, even when those preferences necessarily involve language-focused discrimination."  Do you believe that the media has a right to set an oral speaking standard?

11)  Why does Lippi-Green cite the Scopes trial of 1925?  What does she suggest we learn from it?

12)  Do you agree with Matsuda's quote (p. 170) that accent is an "attribute of self" that deserves legal protection?