ANCHORING LEARNING WITH CULTURAL TOOLS:

USING PROVERBS AND STORIES TO ENHANCE LEARNING AMONG DIVERSE STUDENTS

Valencia Perry, PhD, CCC-SLP

Assistant Professor and Bilingual (Spanish) Speech-Language Pathologist

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Cathy Hughes School of Communications

Howard University

DISCLOSURES

• Salaried employee of HU

• No other financial or non-financial disclosures

A DIVERSE AMERICA

• U.S. linguistically diverse

• Numerous regional dialects, as well as languages used by immigrants and Native American populations

• Language use raises complex issues of fairness and equality in law, particularly in employment.

THE MECCA

About Howard

• Howard is a leader in STEM fields. The National Science Foundation has ranked Howard as the top producer of African-American undergraduates who later earn science and engineering doctoral degrees.

• The University also boasts nationally ranked programs in social work, business and communication sciences and disorders. In 2013, The Washington Post named Howard "An Incubator for Cinematographers.”

• The College of Medicine is a national leader in studying health disparities among people of color and is one of America's top institutions for training women surgeons.

• The Howard University Health Sciences division includes the Howard University Hospital and the Colleges of Dentistry, Pharmacy, and as well as Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.

HU’S DEMOGRAPHICS (2016)

LANGUAGE & CULTURE

• Language is embedded within cultural contexts, as it is a social phenomenon. There is no language without culture!

Language is culture andculture is language

Language and culture have a complex, homologous relationship.

Language is complexly intertwined with culture.

Fatiha Guessabi (n.d.) Language Magazine: Blurring the line between language and culture

HU LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

• Dominant culture is African-American

• Dominant dialect is Mainstream American English

• However, African-American English is the lingua Franca among the student body and the faculty in many informal and in some formal circumstances

• Caribbean dialects and languages are common

• Jamaican Patois

• Haitian Creole

• Spanish’

AFRO-LANGUAGE MIXING: SPANISH

• The vast majority of the African languages that came into contact with Spanish categorically lacked coda consonants and even those few that did minimally permit word-final stops and nasals exhibited no instances of syllable- and wordfinal /ɾ/, /l/, and /s/.

• Furthermore, the large proportion of Bantu-speaking Africans imported during the seventeenth century did not systematically distinguish between /ɾ/ and /l/ and some languages like Kikongo, for instance, only possessed the lateral liquid in their phonemic inventories. “ p.72 (Carson, 2011)

EXAMPLES OF AFRICAN INFLUENCE ON SPANISH

• “ Afro-Hispanic speech. The bulk of these particular phonetic traits demonstrate a general tendency toward CV syllable structure and encompass:

• (1) the deletion of post-nuclear consonants, primarily /ɾ/, /l/, and /s/;

• (2) the velarization of syllable- and word-final /n/;

• (3) the semi-vocalization of final liquids, more commonly known as liquid gliding;

• (4) the phonetic neutralization of both the multiple and simple vibrants in favor of the latter;

• (5) the phonetic neutralization of intervocalic /d/ and /ɾ/ in favor of the flap;

• (6) the regressive assimilation of word-internal, syllable-final liquids;

• (7) the nasalization of word-initial /ʧ/ and /ʝ/ as in chato > ñato ‘cowardly’ and llamar > ñamar ‘to call’;

• (8) the velar and uvular realizations of the multiple vibrant in Puerto Rico; and

• (9) the phonetic neutralization of syllable- and word-final liquids

•(López Morales, 1971; Nathan, 1978; Zamora Munné & Guitart, 1982; Lipski, 1987, 1994, 2005; Megenney, 1999).

•

LINGUISTIC PROFILING

Phenomenon of making inferences about others based solely on their

■ speech, ■ writing, or ■ physical appearance

The amount of information we need to make judgments about others is surprisingly small.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, TITLE VII

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act - Employers may not refuse to hire a person or discriminate against them in terms of “compensation, terms conditions, or privileges of employment” on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”[4]

What about language and dialect? Does this apply to concepts of linguistic bias in employer discrimination?

DIALECTS

Dialects are a mutually intelligible form of a language associated with a particular – region,– social class, or – ethnic group.

Often referred to as accents– Not the same, but can be associated

Variations occur across multiple contexts– Social – Cultural/Ethnic– Geographic location

DIALECTS

A dialect serves as communication function and a social solidarity function.

Maintains communication networking and social construct of the community in which the speaker resides.

Each dialect carries a symbolic representation of the historical, social, and cultural backgrounds of the speaker

MAINSTREAM AMERICAN ENGLISH

● Mainstream American English (MAE):

○ Form of English primarily lacking regional characteristics (Wolfram, 1991)

○ Written form: found in English dictionaries, grammar books, and other printed matter.

○ Spoken form: most often observed of the two. Noticed in the speech of national network newscasters.

○ Idealized form usually chosen when teaching English as a second language

AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH

• AAE or AAVE

• V = vernacular

• Dialect spoken by many, but not exclusive to African-Americans, native to the United States (e.g., Blacks)

• Highly Stigmatized

• Most discussed in academic and linguistic circles○ Remains most stigmatized dialect in educational settings

● Characterized by several phonological, grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic features

● Valid, systematic system of language

CULTURE ON DEVELOPMENT & LEARNING

In a study by Patcher (1997) mothers were asked (in their native languages) to give their opinions about the age at which a normal child should begin to accomplish standard developmental milestones.

Significant differences were observed for the following developmental tasks: able to be fed from a spoon, smiling at a face, recognizing mother, able to feed self with a spoon, putting on own shoes, saying first word; naming colors, able to see shadows and shapes, and able to be toilet trained.

• Here’s some commentary on this study by Ann Brager (2016):

“The results of the study concluded that

developmental expectations differ among mothers from different ethnocultural groups

and

determining parents' expectations is especially important for families from minority groups,

in which traditional values, attitudes, and beliefs about family and child rearing may differ from those of the majority culture.

When gathering assessment information providers should be aware that the general question,

"How do you think your child is developing?" is important to ask recognizing parents' expectations for their child’s development will influence their priorities and their concerns. Findings from this study emphasize the importance of interpreting parents' opinions and concerns about their children's development within the context of their cultural beliefs and expectations.

•

CULTURE ON DEVELOPMENT & LEARNING

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE

HISPANIC CULTURE (US)

JAMAICAN CULTURE

ACCOUNTING FOR DIVERSITY

PROVERBS

• Proverbs are learned through oral literacy, through parental and generational teachings, and through cross-cultural studies, which can be implemented in the teaching of language arts, social studies and/or history.

• Proverbs were and are primary tools for teaching children in all cultures and communities throughout the world. (Yellin, n.d.)

PROVERBS

• All cultures share different types of proverbs and parables

CROSS-CULTURAL SCIENCE PROVERBS

• Experience is the mother of science. ~ Traditional Proverb

• A sword in the hands of a drunken slave is less dangerous than science in the hands

of the unscrupulous. ~ Iranian Proverbs

• There is no science without patience. ~ French Proverbs

• To learn about other people is science, to learn to know yourself is intelligence. ~

Chinese Proverb

• Rivalry between scholars improves science. ~ Chinese Proverb

SELF-HELP/IMPROVEMENT PROVERBS

• No one is poor but he who thinks himself so. ~ Portuguese Proverbs

• He alone is wise who can accommodate himself to all contingencies of life; but the fool contends, and struggling, like a swimmer, against the stream. ~ Latin Proverbs

• If you want to be respected, respect yourself. ~ Spanish Proverb

• Whoever does not help himself cannot help others. ~ Yemeni Proverbs

• He helps little that helps not himself. ~ Traditional Proverb

• Hire staff but do it yourself. ~ Yiddish Proverbs

• He who humbles himself too much gets trampled upon.~ Yugoslavian Proverb

• If you are not good for yourself, how can you be good for others? ~ Spanish Proverb

• He, who hates, hates himself. ~ Zulu Proverb

PROVERBS ABOUT TESTING

• When testing the depths of a stream, don’t use both feet. ~ Chinese Proverbs

• Cross even a stone bridge after you’ve tested it. ~ Korean Proverbs

• Ridicule is the test of truth. ~ Traditional Proverb

• Whoever buys a house must examine the beams; whoever wants a wife must look at her mother. ~ Chinese

Proverb

• Examine what is said, not who is speaking. ~ Arabian Proverbs

• Check before you bite if it is bread or a stone. ~ Croatian Proverbs

• Don’t put money in your purse without checking it for holes. ~ Portuguese Proverbs

PROVERBS ABOUT HEARING

• Children will tell you what they do, men what they think and older people what they have

seen and heard. ~ Gypsy Proverb

• I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand. ~ Chinese Proverb

• When the cook and the steward fall out, we hear who stole the butter. ~ Dutch Proverbs

• When the big bells ring, the little bells are not heard. ~ Yugoslavian Proverb

• If a man would live in peace, he should be blind, deaf, and dumb. ~ Persian Proverb

• If the pocket is empty, the judge is deaf. ~ Russian Proverb

PROVERBS ABOUT PLANNING

• When the will is ready the feet are light. ~ Traditional Proverb

• If the time has passed, there is no point in preparing. ~ Yemeni Proverbs

• If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree. ~ English Proverbs

• He who hides his faults plans to make more. ~ Chinese Proverb

• Thinking well is wise; planning well, wiser; but doing well is the wisest and best of all. ~ Persian Proverb

• An accidental meeting is more pleasant than a planned one. ~ Chinese Proverb

• The rich man plans for tomorrow, the poor man for today. ~ Chinese Proverb

• The lazier a man is, the more he plans to do tomorrow. ~ Norwegian Proverbs

• If you don’t have a plan for yourself, you’ll be part of someone else’s. ~ American Proverbs

• Eat when the meal is ready, speak when the time is ripe. ~ Ethiopian Proverb

• Prepare yourself for when the water comes up to your knees. ~ Congolese Proverb

• Man has a thousand plans, heaven but one. ~ Chinese Proverb

• The way you prepare the bed, so shall you sleep. ~ Yiddish Proverbs

SOME OF MY FAVORITE MAXIMS

• Seek first to understand, then to be understood (Stephen Covey)

• Think Win-Win (Stephen Covey)

• Slow process better than no process (DC AAE Proverb)

• Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me (AAE)

USING PROVERBS FOR TEACHING

• Introduce the proverb

• Ask students to explain the meaning of the proverb (interpreting exercise)

• Align the proverb with your teaching objectives

• Use stories to enhance opportunities to apply scientific concepts in the real world

• News stories are great! Or other current events

• Ask students to make parallels between the proverbs and complimentary scientific or learning concepts

• Reinforce concepts by repeating the proverbs in the lecture

DISCUSSION

RESOURCES

• Cultural Awareness Self Assessment for Health Care Practicioners