Students right to their language in an academic setting response

Ariele Silva
English 1100
September 15, 2015
Prof. Young

          ~ Do you think students should have the right to use their own language in an academic setting? Why or why not? ~


    I think students can not only use their own language but slang as well in an academic setting. Slang can be used, when appropriate, while student’s own language can be used for the reason of being able to “preserve its heritage of dialects”. Not only in a cultural sense but in a modern sense language has changed and evolved. An example would be back the term “Gee willikers!” was used, nowadays no one uses that term but instead say “Oh my God!”. The change over time shows how language evolves and modernizes a simple term of slang. There are also certain modern slang terms like bomb or awk etc., which are more casually used. Those are good normal slang terms used with today’s language but there are also slang terms that are offensive and are mostly profanity. The other day in class, we all used appropriate slang, when learning how to write a "Bangin' Essay". and when we were discussing the explanation of how to pronounce thot. Given those circumstances, it was appropriate to use friendly slang. For example, saying your class is "the bomb" means good things. It means your class is awesome and fun. Another instance in which students should be able to use their own language in an academic setting is just like when we were learning about Gloria Anzaldua and what our identity is. A major point we all agreed as a class that identity was, was language. Gloria incorporating spanish and speaking/writing in Spanglish is part of her using her own language in an academic setting. Her incorporating that is completely appropriate. But if or when students want to take advantage of that, we must still only use it when appropriate. For example to use their own language and slang in an academic setting, it has to be appropriate and clean, it can't be the profanity slang because not only is it vulgar and unprofessional, but it can also be seen as disrespectful. That's why given the circumstances students can use their own language in an academic setting and use slang but only when appropriate.