Rachel Jeantel, Black English and Linguistic Authority

As a linguistics undergraduate who was interested in preserving Endangered Languages, I realized quickly that the general population of the United States holds mostly contrary views concerning language compared with  linguists.  For whatever reason (take your pick, honestly) the average US citizen is either consciously against the idea of promoting or using non-standard dialects, or …

Extremely Embarrassing Spelling

I’ve finished grading essays and spent the last couple of days evaluating my students speaking abilities, of which I do have some things I want to say.  But before I write that piece, I want to write this one. Before work today, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across this little …