Standard American English

     Your knowledge of how to use a language in writing is dependent upon

 

your level of proficiency in the language. Language proficiency is best

 

described as having the ability to communicate in a language automatically

 

without having to pause to think about the sound structure or grammar of the

 

language; but, the language that you speak is a reflection of the language that is

 

heard (Roberts 67, 73). By the age of six, a child will have become proficient

 

in the language that he or she has heard because, by this time, the average

 

child has mastered the sound structure and grammatical patterns of the

 

language (Roberts 67). However, the language that the child becomes

 

proficient in depends on the language or the dialect of a language that is

 

spoken by the child's parents since every language has dialects of the

 

language. For example, some of the American English dialects are Louisiana

 

Creole English, Black English Vernacular, Chicano English, and Hawaii Creole

 

English (Sato 260). In fact, a dialect is defined as the varieties of a language

 

that are distinguished by features of sound structure, grammar, vocabulary, and

 

language use by speakers who are separated geographically or socially

 

(Gramercy Books 397). This is because in human societies, dominant social

 

groups reserve the title "language" for their own language and assign the label

 

"dialect" to the languages of others (Speicher and Bielanski 147). In England,

 

the dominant social group is The Royal Family, thus the language of England is

 

known as "The Queen's English" (The King's English when there is a King) or

 

"Received Pronunciation" (Speicher and Bielanski 148). In the United States

 

of America we do not have a royal family; however, the language that is used

 

by mainstream Americans, the language in which school text books are

 

written, and the language of the educational system is known as "National

 

Network English" or Standard American English (SAE) (Speicher and

 

Bielanski 147-148).

 

     The difficulty that many people have with developing proficiency in the

 

writing process of SAE is because people do not speak SAE. Human speech

 

is situated in context; therefore, tone, pitch, volume, physical gestures, facial

 

expressions, vocal stress, and intonation accompany and complement what is

 

said so that meaning can be expressed in "real time" (Speicher and Bielanski

 

150; Krauthamer 4). On the other hand, writing is decontextualized and even

 

though punctuation, underlining, and italics can provide some information, the

 

responsibility of conveying meaning is left to the words that are written

 

(Speicher and Bielanski 150; Krauthamer 4). The goal of writing is to produce

 

text that is clear in its meaning without any need for further explanation

 

because the writer is normally detached from the reader (Speicher and

 

Bielanski 150). The need for clarity in meaning is the foundation for the rules of

 

SAE because an absence of standardization in writing would create severe

 

communication problems, as is often the case with speech (Speicher and

 

Bielanski 150).

 

     In order to develop proficiency in the writing process of SAE, you must

 

be able to shift back and forth between your home language and the language

 

of SAE. If your parents, other family members and playmates or schoolmates

 

all say "Mai nyuspepa neva kam dis mawning" you will naturally have difficulty

 

understanding why you should write "My newspaper never came this morning"

 

because that is not how you would say it (Roberts 73; Sato 262). Likewise, if

 

your parents, other family members and playmates or schoolmates all say "The

 

two climbers who were feeling exhausted went back" you will naturally have

 

difficulty understanding why you should write "The two climbers, who were

 

feeling exhausted, went back" because that is not how you would say it

 

(Roberts 73; Speicher and Bielanski 150). The grammar of writing is different

 

from that of speech because in writing, we uses commas to make distinctions

 

that, in speech, are made by changes in intonation (Speicher and Bielanski

 

150).

 

     In 1977, Carol Myers-Scotton and William Ury identified the use of two or

 

more linguistic varieties, simultaneously or interchangeably, in the same

 

conversation or interaction as "Code-Switching" (Coffey 1; Duran 3). Initially,

 

linguist considered code-switching to be a random process that could be

 

explained by interference, the transfer of aspects of spoken language into

 

written text, which Krauthamer refers to as spoken language interference

 

patterns (SLIPs); however, code-switching is now considered to be a useful

 

communication strategy (Duran 3; xvii). In fact, research has shown that the

 

effective use of SLIPs can heighten a reader's interest level by "creating a

 

conversational tone" that simulates face to face communication (Duran 3;

 

Krauthamer 115). On the other hand, the need to switch from what is

 

comfortable to SAE is, for most people, "about as easy and as pleasurable as

 

bathing a cat" (Lamott 3).

 

     With all of this in mind, the best way to begin the writing process is by

 

writing notes in the language that you are the most comfortable with using. The

 

most important thing is to get your ideas on paper so that you will not forget

 

them because you will be able to make it neat later; after all, that is why drafts

 

are called rough.

 

Works Cited

Coffey, Heather. "Code-switching." Learn NC program of the University of

 

     North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education. 20 Jan. 2009. Web.

Duran, Luisa. "Toward a Better Understanding of Code Switching and

 

     Interlanguage in Bilinguality: Implications for Bilingual Instruction." The

 

     Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students 14 1994:

 

     69-88. Web.

Gramercy Books. Webster's encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the

     English Language. New York/Avenel, New Jersey: Random House, 1989.

     Print.

Krauthamer, H. Spoken Language Interference Patterns in Written English.

 

     New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1999. Print.

 

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New

 

     York: Anchor Books, 1995. Print.

 

Roberts, P. Understanding English. New York: Harper and Row, 1958. Print.

 

Sato, Charlene J. A Nonstandard Approach to Standard English. TESOL

 

     Quarterly 23.2 1989: 259-282. Web.

Speicher, Barbara L. and Bielanski, Jessica R. Critical Thoughts on Teaching

 

     Standard English. Curriculum Inquiry 30.2 2000: 147-169. Web.