Resources for Educators

This page provides a comprehensive list of online and multimedia resources for educators interested in learning more about language variation.  

• Scroll down for general resources for educators at all grade levels and across content areas!

We also have resources for educators that are specific to different content areas:

• Click here for resources especially for secondary English educators, including resources that accompany each chapter of our book, We Do Language: English Language Variation in the Secondary English Classroom
• Click here for resources especially for STEM educators, in conjunction with research supported by our collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation
• Scroll down for general resources for educators at all grade levels and across content areas!

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About Language Variation

• The Linguistic Society of America:  Frequently Asked Questions about Linguistics
• The National Science Foundation: Dialects – What They Are, Why They Matter
• Center For Applied Linguistics:  Dialects
• Language Log posts on issues related to language variation:
  • Dialects
  • Language and the Law
  • Language and Politics
  • Language Attitudes
  • Language Teaching and Learning
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Variation
• “Aunt, Adult, Pajamas: Why Can’t We Agree How to Pronounce Common Words?“
• “Four Changes to English So Subtle We Hardly Notice They’re Happening”
• “8 Pronunciation Errors That Made the English Language What It Is Today”
• “Don’t Use ‘Pants’ for ‘Pantaloons’: 19 Surprising Rules Copyeditors Used to Enforce”
• Actor Stephen Fry talking about variation and change in the English language
• “There’s No Such Thing as ‘General American'”: As these videos by dialect coach Erik Singer explain, we all have an accent.
• Talkin’ Tar Heel: A 30-minute radio piece on NPR interviewing Dr. Walt Wolfram about language diversity and the linguistic heritage of North Carolina
• “‘It’s a Language Variation, and It Has Its Own Structure”:  Our podcast features the voices of 14 pre- and in-service teachers talking about what they have learned about language variation in the classroom and how it has positively impacted their teaching and helped them better communicate with their students.
• “The Three Rs: Introduction to Linguistics”: This short video by linguist Susan Behrens features a discussion of language variation and explains the perspective of linguists, focusing on common features such as subject-verb agreement, ask vs. aks, and who vs. whom.
• On language variation and identity: View this TED talk by Jamila Lyiscott, a “tri-tongued orator.” In her powerful spoken-word essay “Broken English,” she celebrates — and challenges — the three distinct flavors of English she speaks with her friends, in the classroom and with her parents. As she explores the complicated history and present-day identity that each language represents, she unpacks what it means to be “articulate.”
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel

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About American English and Other Languages in the U.S.

• The Open University‘s series of 10 short and funny videos, called “The History of English in 10 Minutes” — topics on American English, Internet English, The English of Science, Shakespeare.  For a list of all 10 videos, click here.
• “Soda/Pop/Coke: The Many Dialects of American English in One Charming Video”
• Listen to speakers from throughout the U.S. and Canada on the Speech Accent Archive
• PBS Documentary and interactive website, Do You Speak American?
• Opening Scene from the documentary, American Tongues
• CBS This Morning piece, “Are Americans Losing their Accents?” In this video, Mo Rocca interviews linguist Dr. Walt Wolfram about language variation in American English and calls North Carolina “dialect heaven”
• “The Diversity of English in America,”  a blog post by Dr. Simanique Moody on the structure of African American English
• “If These Knishes Could Talk”: A film about New York English
• Modern Language Association’s Map of Languages in the U.S. 
• Dictionary of American Regional English
• National Map of Dialect Regions of the U.S.  gives detailed discussion of language variation in U.S. English
• Research finding: Children as young as 18 months understand different dialects
• Professor’s Research Allows Audience to Hear Shakespeare’s Words in His Own Accent
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project YouTube Channel
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel

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Language and Culture in the South and Appalachia

• “Do All Southerners Have the Same Dialect?” Listen to this podcast.
• “Southern Accent in Danger?” An article on the changing Raleigh, NC, dialect.
• “Where Did Cajun Come From?” Listen to this podcast.
• Center for the Study of the American South
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project
• The Appalachian Regional Commission
• Spanish Voices: Spanish and English in the Southeastern United States, a documentary from the North Carolina Language and Life Project
• Watch a Speaker of the Cherokee Language from the “Voices of North Carolina” documentary from the North Carolina Language and Life Project
• Southern Education Foundation provides information about education in the U.S. South
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project YouTube Channel
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel
• Language Variation in the Classroom:  A Guide for Teachers, compiled by Hannah Askin Franz, College of William & Mary
• Teaching Tolerance: “Good Morning Boys and Girls” article on language and gender bias in school classrooms
• Language Diversity, School Learning, and Achievement Gaps: A Workshop Summary: A summary and synthesis of reports from scholars who attended the National Research Council workshop on the issues that surround the study of language, academic learning, and achievement gaps in the U.S.
• Linguistics Research Digest: Blogging on Language Issues
• High School Teachers’ Manual/Guide on Language Variation for the PBS Documentary, Do You Speak American?
• College Teachers’ Manual/Guide on African American English for the PBS Documentary, Do You Speak American?

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Language and Culture in African American Communities

• Linguist List: African American Vernacular English: An article in which linguists discuss this variety, providing information and expressing reactions to the Oakland Ebonics controversy
• “If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” Essay by James Baldwin (1979) in The New York Times
• “The Diversity of English in America,” a blog post by Dr. Simanique Moody on the structure of African American English
• Affrilachian Poets
• Phonological (Sound-Related) Features of African American English
• College Teachers’ Manual/Guide on African American English for the PBS Documentary, Do You Speak American?
• The Black American Sign Language (ASL) Project from Gallaudet University describes “the linguistic features of a variety of American Sign Language (ASL) used by African American signers and usually known as Black ASL.”  See also the Black American Sign Language (ASL) Project’s Facebook page
• “Why Chaucer Said ‘Ax’ Instead of ‘Ask’ and Why Some Still Do”:  This article from the NPR CodeSwitch blog explains how the pronunciation of “ask” as “ax” can be traced back to the 8th century to its use today
• The ‘ax’ versus ‘ask’ question: Using ‘ax’ for ‘ask’ dates back to Chaucer, so why do we consider it illiterate today?” An article by linguist John McWhorter
• Black ASL:  A Post on Word. The Online Journal of African American English
• Word. The Online Journal of African American English
• “Word on the Street, Blogging about African American Linguistics”
• Dr. John R. Rickford’s Website, “Writings on the ‘Ebonics’ Issue”
• Dr. Peter Patrick’s “Bibliography of Works on African American English”
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst Center for the Study of African American Language
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project YouTube Channel
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel

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On Culture, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Education

• “Race: The Power of an Illusion” Documentary:  Episode 1
• “Race: The Power of an Illusion” Online Companion
• “Race – Are We So Different?”  A Project of the American Anthropological Association
• National Public Radio’s (NPR) blog, Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity
• The National Association for Multicultural Education
• Teaching Tolerance, “a place to find thought-provoking news, conversation and support for those who care about diversity, equal opportunity and respect for differences in schools” — the site includes classroom activities
• Teaching Tolerance:  Everyone Has an Accent
• Teaching Tolerance:  Classroom activity on “Linguicism”
• Teaching Tolerance:  “Sound Effects” article on Dialect Prejudice and Accent Discrimination
• Teaching Tolerance:  Exploring the Power of the N-word:  A teacher writes a blog post on issues surrounding “the ‘N’ word” in her middle school English classroom in Louisiana
• Teaching Tolerance:  Appreciate the Diversity in Rural Places
• Teaching Tolerance: Speak Up! Website and downloadable handbook for educators
• Teachers Against Prejudice, an organization for sharing materials about teaching for social justice
• Test Yourself for Hidden Bias:  Psychologists developed Hidden Bias Tests, also called Implicit Association Tests, to measure unconscious bias
• Culture in the Classroom: A short article and video about incorporating culture into curriculum at a high school on South Dakota’s Lakota Rosebud Reservation, with further resources for addressing cultural myth
• The Teaching Diverse Students Initiative: A short article discusses culturally relevant pedagogy with a short video featuring Dr. Sonia Nieto
• The Bank Street College Library provides a searchable catalog of children’s multicultural literature
• Culturally Relevant Literacy children’s book reading list, downloadable as a PDF
• The MultiCultural Review journal features materials used in multicultural instruction
• The National Center for Fair and Open Testing providesFairTest Fact Sheets, including K-12 Testing Fact Sheets
• The American Sociological Association’s resources for teaching high school sociology
• Engaging Students in Learning: In this video, faculty at the College of William & Mary explain how they engage their students in the learning process

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Our Wikis

• The Wiki Site for the Virginia Diversity Network We Do Language Workshop -password protected (available to past and current participants)
• The Wiki Site for the Compass Breaking Down Barriers Conference
• The Wiki Site for our VCU Workshops – password protected (available to past and current participants)
• The Wiki Site for our MGP Workshops – password protected (available to past and current participants)
• The Wiki Site for our SURN Workshops – password protected (available to current participants)

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This page provides a comprehensive list of online and multimedia resources for educators interested in learning more about language variation.  We also have content-area specific pages:

• Click here for resources especially for secondary English educators
• Click here for resources especially for STEM educators
• Scroll up for general resources for educators at all grade levels and across content areas!

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Want to suggest any additional resources for educators?

Interested in participating in our professional development for educators?

Please contact us!