Dialect Awareness in Literature and Life

Dovey Coe, a young adolescent novel by Frances O'Roark Dowell of Boone, North Carolina, takes place in the 1930s in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The use of mountain dialect continues to remind the reader of the importance of setting in this novel. The study of a selection from this novel will help students realize the impact of dialect in literature as well as their own speaking and writing.

A lesson plan for grade 8 English Language Arts

By Barbara Groome and Jo Peterson Gibbs

Learn more

• Poets.org The website of the Academy of American Poets offers thousands of poems as well as hundreds of poet biographies, essays, interviews, and poetry recordings. The biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar may provide helpful background reading for this lesson.

Related pages

• Inching through oral language for ESOL students: This lesson will use the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to help the student use clear and precise language to demonstrate comprehension.

Related topics

• Learn more about language arts.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• read a short selection from Dovey Coe and note the importance of the use of dialect in the novel.
• re-write a short portion from Dovey Coe in standard English, rather than the dialect the author uses.
• examine their own use of dialect in everyday speech. This can come from their cultural background or simply the “lingo” of young adolescents.
• write a narrative using their casual dialect. Afterwards, students will re-write this same narrative using standard English.
• realize the difference between the casual way most people converse and compare it to more formal, standard English, and understand when each is acceptable.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 Hours

Materials/resources

• Two poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask” and “When Malindy Sings,” available on the Academy of American Poets’ website, poets.org.
• Sample pages may be viewed from Dovey Coe through a book-finding resource on the Internet. Here is a sample of dialect in the novel from the back cover:
  

  My name is Dovey Coe and I recon it don’t matter if you like me or not. I’m here to lay the record straight, to let you know them folks saying I done a terrible thing are liars. I am to prove it, too. I hated Parnell Caraway as much as the next person, but I didn’t kill him.

• A copy of a sample from the novel for each student.
• Pen or pencil, and notebook paper.

Technology resources

If instructor does not have a copy of the novel, Dovey Coe, he/she may use the Internet to view the novel and sample pages from a book purchasing site.

Pre-activities

Talk with students about the different ways we speak. For example, when we are in our more “casual” register, we might use slang or improper language that is acceptable to our friends and family. When should students move from more casual English to a more formal register? When students are presenting reports, asking questions to a guest speaker, or when students are asked for their opinion in a classroom discussion are all times when students should be practicing standard English.

Activities

Lesson #1:

Modeling / Minilesson

1. Introduce the concept of “dialect” and “standard English” to students. Read aloud to students two poems, one in dialect (”When Malindy sings”) and one in standard English (”We Wear the Mask”). Tell students that these two poems were written by the same author, Paul Laurence Dunbar.
2. On an overhead transparency, use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the language Dunbar uses in the dialect poem to the language used in the standard English poem. Ask students to find specific words, grammatical usage, punctuation, and spelling that signals whether the author is using dialect or standard English.
3. Ask students why they think the author chose to use dialect for “When Malindy Sings” and standard English for “We Wear the Mask.” Who is speaking in the poems? Who is the audience for the poem? Would the poems be as effective if they were written in standard English instead of dialect, and vice versa?

Guided Practice

4. Hand each student a copy of a page from Dovey Coe. Have them underline and note examples of dialect the author uses.
5. Have each student re-write a portion of the page, using “standard English.” Read a few of these aloud in class.
6. Ask students what effect dialect has on the novel and why the author would use dialect as opposed to standard English.

Independent Practice

7. For homework, have students record the words of a casual conversation between themselves and their peers, using the dialect/language they commonly use. This should be at least one page in length.

Lesson #2:

1. Have a few students read aloud their homework papers, noting the dialect and use of language.
2. Ask students to switch papers. Students should then re-write the conversation for a different audience (parents, teacher, principal, employer), using standard English.
3. In small groups, compile a group list of at least one change each group member made and the reason why the change was made. Each group will share their results with the whole class.
4. Instructor should reinforce the effect dialect has on everyday conversation and why authors use dialect in their writing.
5. Students may journal what they learned from this assignment about the difference between dialect and standard English.
6. Students should be aware of the power of the language they choose to use in casual vs. formal writing.

Assessment

Assessment will be determined by class participation, homework completion, writing samples, group list of changes, and journal entry. Students will be assessed on their ability to identify differences in word choice, grammatical usage, and conventions between dialect/casual language and formal/standard English.

Supplemental information

Instructors may locate additional information on dialect or use other pieces of literature in which dialect is a key factor. It may also be helpful to search for criticism of Dovey Coe on the web.

Comments

Dovey Coe is a great short-read book for middle school students. Characterization, sensitivity to those who are deaf, mountain life and justice are all themes that may be further explored.