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The Use of Dialects in Education and Its Impacts on Students’ Learning and Achievements

Received: 27 September 2015    Accepted: 8 October 2015    Published: 24 October 2015
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Abstract

It is argued that learning is better and more successful when conducted in the variety spoken by students. In addition, it is claimed that the use of students’ variety in education enables students to use their own potential and helps them to achieve ‘deep learning.’ Besides, the use of students’ native dialect in education enhances the social, cognitive, emotional and linguistic development of learners’ in and out of school. For these reasons, it is argued that students need to be educated through their own variety. However, in multidialectal society, the issue of dialect and education in general and the issue of choosing the variety to be used as a Language of Instruction(LOI) in particular has been a great concern to linguists, educationalist and researchers for a long period of time (Yiakoumetti, 2007). This is because selecting the variety to be used as a LOI in multidialectal society is difficult as well as controversial. Besides, deciding the LOI largely depends on a variety of factors such as historical, economic, pedagogical, sociolinguistic, cultural, ideological, theoretical or/and political (UNESCO, 2003). For these reasons, the incorporation of dialects in educational system is questionable and contentious. This article is, therefore, intended to describe the use of dialects in education. Specifically, it will describes variations within the same language, social and regional dialects, standard and nonstandard varieties and their use in education the social evaluation of language varieties and its influence on their use in education, deficit and difference views and their influence on educational practice and the impacts of using dialects in education on students’ learning and achievements.

DOI 10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22
Published in Education Journal (Volume 4, Issue 5, September 2015)
Page(s) 263-269
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Language, Dialect, Standard Variety, Non Standard Varieties, Education, Learning, Achievement

References
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[2] Adger, C., Wolfram, M. and Detwyler, J. (1993). Confronting dialect minority issues in special education: Reactive and proactive perspectives. Third National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student: Focus on middle and high school issues.
[3] Chambers, J. K. (2008). Studying language variation: An informal epistemology. In Chambers, J.K, Trudgill, P. and Schilling-Estes, N. (Eds). (2008). Handbook of language variation and change (7-15). Retrieved fromhttp://www.blackwellreference.com/ subscriber/book?
[4] Chambers, J.K. and Trudgill, P. (2004). Dialectology (2nd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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[14] Hagen, A. (1989).Dialect, Frisian and education in the Netherlands. In Cheshire et al., (Eds). (1989). Dialect and education: Some European perspectives (48-61).Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
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    Wondimu Tegegne. (2015). The Use of Dialects in Education and Its Impacts on Students’ Learning and Achievements. Education Journal, 4(5), 263-269. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22

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    Wondimu Tegegne. The Use of Dialects in Education and Its Impacts on Students’ Learning and Achievements. Educ. J. 2015, 4(5), 263-269. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22

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    AMA Style

    Wondimu Tegegne. The Use of Dialects in Education and Its Impacts on Students’ Learning and Achievements. Educ J. 2015;4(5):263-269. doi: 10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22

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  • @article{10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22,
      author = {Wondimu Tegegne},
      title = {The Use of Dialects in Education and Its Impacts on Students’ Learning and Achievements},
      journal = {Education Journal},
      volume = {4},
      number = {5},
      pages = {263-269},
      doi = {10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.edu.20150405.22},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.edu.20150405.22},
      abstract = {It is argued that learning is better and more successful when conducted in the variety spoken by students. In addition, it is claimed that the use of students’ variety in education enables students to use their own potential and helps them to achieve ‘deep learning.’ Besides, the use of students’ native dialect in education enhances the social, cognitive, emotional and linguistic development of learners’ in and out of school. For these reasons, it is argued that students need to be educated through their own variety. However, in multidialectal society, the issue of dialect and education in general and the issue of choosing the variety to be used as a Language of Instruction(LOI) in particular has been a great concern to linguists, educationalist and researchers for a long period of time (Yiakoumetti, 2007). This is because selecting the variety to be used as a LOI in multidialectal society is difficult as well as controversial. Besides, deciding the LOI largely depends on a variety of factors such as historical, economic, pedagogical, sociolinguistic, cultural, ideological, theoretical or/and political (UNESCO, 2003). For these reasons, the incorporation of dialects in educational system is questionable and contentious. This article is, therefore, intended to describe the use of dialects in education. Specifically, it will describes variations within the same language, social and regional dialects, standard and nonstandard varieties and their use in education the social evaluation of language varieties and its influence on their use in education, deficit and difference views and their influence on educational practice and the impacts of using dialects in education on students’ learning and achievements.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    AB  - It is argued that learning is better and more successful when conducted in the variety spoken by students. In addition, it is claimed that the use of students’ variety in education enables students to use their own potential and helps them to achieve ‘deep learning.’ Besides, the use of students’ native dialect in education enhances the social, cognitive, emotional and linguistic development of learners’ in and out of school. For these reasons, it is argued that students need to be educated through their own variety. However, in multidialectal society, the issue of dialect and education in general and the issue of choosing the variety to be used as a Language of Instruction(LOI) in particular has been a great concern to linguists, educationalist and researchers for a long period of time (Yiakoumetti, 2007). This is because selecting the variety to be used as a LOI in multidialectal society is difficult as well as controversial. Besides, deciding the LOI largely depends on a variety of factors such as historical, economic, pedagogical, sociolinguistic, cultural, ideological, theoretical or/and political (UNESCO, 2003). For these reasons, the incorporation of dialects in educational system is questionable and contentious. This article is, therefore, intended to describe the use of dialects in education. Specifically, it will describes variations within the same language, social and regional dialects, standard and nonstandard varieties and their use in education the social evaluation of language varieties and its influence on their use in education, deficit and difference views and their influence on educational practice and the impacts of using dialects in education on students’ learning and achievements.
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Author Information
  • College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wolayita Soddo University, Wolayita Soddo, Ethiopia

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