[Teaching_Composition] Academic language

[Charles Nelson]

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Bill in his module writes, "Could admitting charged or offensive discourses
into the classroom be an opportunity to explore the role language plays in
reproducing hegemony?"

One point that hasn't been really discussed is how academic language works
against religious conservatives in college. I remember once overhearing an
instructor explain to a student who apparently was a Christian outside of
class that "myth" didn't mean false but rather it referred to historical or
legendary stories that couldn't be documented. The problem with this
response is that the average person automatically associates "myth" with
false or fictitious, and I doubt that even scholars who use the term escape
from this cultural association.

We can probably think of other such words, but I wonder how aware we are of
how what we consider innocuous or appropriate vocabulary might actually be
offensive to different populations of students. Do we, or can we, discuss
any charged issue without using language that automatically privileges one
group and disadvantages another? Do we reflect on the vocabulary we use with
our students and attempt to find, as much as possible, terms that don't bias
the discussion?

Charles Nelson

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Bill in his module writes, "Could admitting charged or offensive discourses into the classroom be
an opportunity to explore the role language plays in reproducing
hegemony?&quot;<br><br>One point that hasn't been really discussed is how academic language works against religious conservatives in college. I remember once overhearing an instructor explain to a student who apparently was a Christian outside of class that &quot;myth&quot; didn't mean false but rather it referred to historical or legendary stories that couldn't be documented. The problem with this response is that the average person automatically associates &quot;myth&quot; with false or fictitious, and I doubt that even scholars who use the term escape from this cultural association.
<br><br>We can probably think of other such words, but I wonder how aware we are of how what we consider innocuous or appropriate vocabulary might actually be offensive to different populations of students. Do we, or can we, discuss any charged issue without using language that automatically privileges one group and disadvantages another? Do we reflect on the vocabulary we use with our students and attempt to find, as much as possible, terms that don't bias the discussion?
<br><br>Charles Nelson<br>

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