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Unpacking Misconceptions about Language & Identities with Prof. Michel DeGraff

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Content provided by MIT OpenCourseWare. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by MIT OpenCourseWare or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

“We all hold dear certain attitudes about language,” Professor Michel DeGraff says in this episode centered on his course 24.908 Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities. Those attitudes can be positive for ourselves and for others, DeGraff says, but they can also have negative effects. His goal is to make linguistics accessible to a broader audience, to connect language to issues of culture and identity, and to show how language prejudices are rooted in hierarchies of power. Specifically, he seeks to increase public awareness that the creoles of the Caribbean, like his native Haitian Creole (or Kreyòl), are fully developed languages worthy of as much respect as higher-prestige languages like French or English. To pursue this goal, he promotes dual-language education for Haitian-American students, and he himself speaks Kreyòl in as many public forums as possible—including in the videos on the OpenCourseWare site for his course, and at various points in this podcast itself! At the same time, as he explains, he encourages his students to examine their own backgrounds to see how their attitudes about the languages they speak have been shaped by explicit or implicit attitudes about culture and identity.

Relevant Resources:

MIT OpenCourseWare

The OCW Educator Portal

Professor DeGraff’s course on OCW

Professor DeGraff’s faculty page

The MIT-Haiti Initiative

English / Haitian Creole dual-language kindergarten in Boston

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions

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If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!

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Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.

Connect with Us

If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!

Call us @ 617-715-2517

On our site

On Facebook

On X

On Instagram

On LinkedIn

Stay Current

Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.

Support OCW

If you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going!

Credits

Sarah Hansen, host and producer

Brett Paci, producer

Dave Lishansky, producer

Show notes by Peter Chipman

  continue reading

48 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 262990634 series 2625682
Content provided by MIT OpenCourseWare. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by MIT OpenCourseWare or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

“We all hold dear certain attitudes about language,” Professor Michel DeGraff says in this episode centered on his course 24.908 Creole Languages and Caribbean Identities. Those attitudes can be positive for ourselves and for others, DeGraff says, but they can also have negative effects. His goal is to make linguistics accessible to a broader audience, to connect language to issues of culture and identity, and to show how language prejudices are rooted in hierarchies of power. Specifically, he seeks to increase public awareness that the creoles of the Caribbean, like his native Haitian Creole (or Kreyòl), are fully developed languages worthy of as much respect as higher-prestige languages like French or English. To pursue this goal, he promotes dual-language education for Haitian-American students, and he himself speaks Kreyòl in as many public forums as possible—including in the videos on the OpenCourseWare site for his course, and at various points in this podcast itself! At the same time, as he explains, he encourages his students to examine their own backgrounds to see how their attitudes about the languages they speak have been shaped by explicit or implicit attitudes about culture and identity.

Relevant Resources:

MIT OpenCourseWare

The OCW Educator Portal

Professor DeGraff’s course on OCW

Professor DeGraff’s faculty page

The MIT-Haiti Initiative

English / Haitian Creole dual-language kindergarten in Boston

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions

Connect with Us

If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!

On our site

On Facebook

On Twitter

On Instagram

Stay Current

Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.

Connect with Us

If you have a suggestion for a new episode or have used OCW to change your life or those of others, tell us your story. We’d love to hear from you!

Call us @ 617-715-2517

On our site

On Facebook

On X

On Instagram

On LinkedIn

Stay Current

Subscribe to the free monthly "MIT OpenCourseWare Update" e-newsletter.

Support OCW

If you like Chalk Radio and OpenCourseware, donate to help keep these programs going!

Credits

Sarah Hansen, host and producer

Brett Paci, producer

Dave Lishansky, producer

Show notes by Peter Chipman

  continue reading

48 episodes

All episodes

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