And so it begins...

Even though classes officially started last week, Tuesday and Wednesday were my first actual class meetings. It feels great to finally get started; meeting or reacquainting with instructors and fellow students never looses its excitement. This mixture of anxiousness and excitement and joy that comes with starting the new school year is always present for me this time of year. I'm really happy to be a student, and especially happy to begin work that I hope will contribute to helping more students feel the way I do about school.

As I begin my work this term, I will attempt to have the work I do in my classes contribute in some way to the questions and issues raised thus far in my professional and academic experience.

What is Standard English? What is the history and boundary of this "standard"?
What is AAVE (African American Vernacular)/Black English? And what relationship does it have to the standard?
What role does identity (cultural/individual) serve in the processes of acquiring and learning language?
In what ways, if any, do oppressed groups help maintain the structures that oppresses them?

This list will of course change and evolve as I find out how to ask better questions and begin trying to address some of my concerns. One of my courses this term, an ethnographic research methods course, I think will help me develop the ability to ask better set-up questions. I think that knowing how to ask the questions will help me pick classes in the future that will narrow my focus and make all the work I do that more relevant in working toward the dissertation. At least that's the goal. I'm really riding this notion of "context informs content," so I'll stay with it for a while and see how far it gets me.

I have a few ideas for projects for this class. One is a study of the Critical Mass rides that take place here (http://critical-mass.groogroo.com/). I'm interested in cycling culture, and it seems to be a prominent part of general student culture in Chambana. Doing some participant-observation during the meetings and rides might be really interesting.

The other project that's crossed my mind is to conduct observations in the (AWP) Academic Writing Program at the University. I wonder what that experience is like for the teachers and students involved. I'd especially be interested in the development of language and communication that takes place between the teachers and students in that program. I'd guess that I'm not the first one to approach this topic, but maybe I can put a different thesis on it.

It's between those two right now. And the latter fits better with my other courses, a Writing Studies survey course, and Globalization and World English. All three of these courses have the potential to address the issue of what is happening to the English language.

Entering the Discourse

It's high time I got around to this. As the dust settles from the recent changes in my life, it makes sense to document the process in some way.