Reflection

I wanted to find out whether or not teachers are biased against slang. My questions have grown to whether education is biased against slang or not because I wanted to find why a teacher might be biased which led me to the idea that it could be the curriculum. However more people disagreed with the statement that education is biased against slang than with the statement that english teachers are biased against slang which shows that education has less bias in it that english teachers. This says it's the english teachers not the curriculum. My language belief that all dialects are important has not changed because I have learned that some teachers are biased toward slang and some aren't. This shows that some think it's important (my language belief) and some don't. This does not support or disregard my belief because the number of people who disagreed/agreed were equal.

Recommendations

In further research it might be wise to survey people who have had the same teachers and also interview more teachers and students. It might also be good to interview some principles, so you have the experience of someone who has had to fire/hire english teachers and has more experience with english teachers.

Conclusions

I have to the conclusion that some teachers are biased against slang and some are not. Using the survey I gave Mrs. Bergman and the data I gained by surveying students, I can say that some teachers are biased and some aren't. Mrs. Bergman said that she isn't biased against slang, but that some other teachers are and the students had equal answers for
strongly agree/agree/neutral/disagree/strongly disagree which says that they have different opinions depending on who they have had as teachers. Those that had biased teachers agreed, those who had mixed teachers were neutral and those who had teachers that were free to slang disagreed.

Interpretation of Data

Using my data I have come to believe that there are an equal number of teachers that are biased toward slang as there are those that aren't because there are equal people who are neutral, agree/strongly agree and disagree/strongly disagree. I have also come to believe that education is not biased because more people disagree/strongly disagree with the statement: "Education is biased against slang." than people who agree/strongly agree.

Data

I surveyed. 15 students and found that students opinions on english teachers being biased is varied. 1/3 of the 15 students disagree with the statement, English teachers are biased against slang. 1/3 of them were neutral and thought that there were equal amounts of teachers biased and not biased.  The last 1/3 of them agreed with the state that English teachers are biased against slang. I also called a survey for whether they think education is biased against slang. Oddly more people disagreed with the statement, Education is biased against slang, than agreed with it. I was expecting that they would think education was biased. 3/5 of the 15 students disagreed. 1/5 of the students agreed with the statement and the last 1/5 thought it was equally biased as well as not biased.

Primary Research

I am going to interview students and english teachers to see if they think education, english teachers or themselves are biased against slang. I am going to interview teachers and I'm going to make a survey for students. 

1- strongly agree 2- agree 3-neutral 4-disagree 5-strongly disagree.

Students:

English teachers are biased against slang.  5  4   3   2   1

Why do you think this?

Education is biased against slang. 5  4  3  2  1

Why do you think this?

Teachers:

Do you think you are biased against slang? Why?

Do you think other English Teachers are biased against slang?

Do you think education is biased against slang? Why?

Sources

D.W. Maurer. "slang." University of Louisville, Kentucky. October 2008. . Nota Bene. That's How I Talk. 19 October 2008. .

Secondary Research

I read an article about slang in education. It said that at the beginning of education slang was not tolerated. However they have begun to realize that slang is an important part of language and began to tolerate the use of slang in writing because it gave mood to a story and helped the experience of the reader. I agree with the current  belief about slang. Using the blog of my English teacher, who believes how people talk is who they are, I found a picture saying Standard Edited English is biased, which helps support my research if education is biased against slang.

My Research Plan

To answer the question I am going to interview the two English teachers to find out if they are biased against slang. I am also going to survey my peers to find out they think that English teachers are biased against slang. I will also use the internet to hopefully find out what other people think about slang in education.

My Research Questions

Are English teachers biased towards slang?

My Research Goals

I hope to find out if English teachers are biased against slang because I think dialects are important and slang is a dialect, so if English teachers are saying it's bad they are against my belief. I also plan to find out if education is biased against slang.

My Language Beliefs

I believe that all dialects are important because dialects set feeling to a situation and are needed in different situations. In class we had someone come and talk to us about language who had been in South Africa and experienced different versions of English. The different versions are important to different people.