Publishing and Respect for Culture

Sounds like an odd mix, doesn't it? I spent most of my downtime (if you can call it that) Monday putting the final touches on an article I wrote. "Regional Dialect and Homophones: Teaching Standard English Composition to Thomian-Dialect Speakers" will be published by Claflin University in Summer 2013 in an anthology backed by the Claflin Initiative. Oddly enough, the topic became germane at happy hour last night with fellow UVI employees (not all professors). We were discussing cultural differences on St. Thomas--especially those that create difficulties for our students. One of those is the stigma surrounding mental illness--even so basic as stress or anxiety. Many West Indians believe that only the truly "crazy" seek help for mental concerns, and others believe that we are still in a 1950's time warp when anyone who admits to mental concerns will be given a shot and never seen again. This obviously causes difficulty for advisors, counselors and professors on the college campus. If a student believes that her anxiety or severe stress are normal, or that she must "get over it" on her own, she is quite likely to fail right out of school. Sadly, if that student had spent an hour with a counselor on campus, she might have found some coping strategies and become a more successful student as a result. Mental health, however, is not where my article nudged its way into conversation; rather, a discussion of perception led to some of our observations about how crucial respect is in the society here. Students will not listen to a professor they do not respect, nor will they do much more than show up and sulk through the class, texting or playing Angry Birds (if they aren't flat-out listening to music on their smart phone). One of my challenges--which I addressed in the article--is to teach students how to communicate effectively in Standard English (SE). Most West Indian students (from any island) use a dialect similar to English, but largely without most of the grammar or syntax structures familiar to SE speakers. In order to teach my students effectively, I must first help them to accept that while there is nothing "wrong" with the manner in which they speak, it is not SE; therefore, they must learn to use SE for the academic and business worlds. If a teacher sounds condescending or insulting, however, the students simply won't care--she will already have lost their respect because the students will feel that she disrespected them. Teachers at every level walk thin lines, but at the end of the day, shutting down students with a condescending or sarcastic comment is not going to serve anyone--least of all the students.