Intro (Andrew and Madison): Hello and welcome to Word Shift, the podcast where language gets personal, political, and powerful. I’m your host, Andrew Karduna, and I am Madison Dwyer, and today we’re diving into a conversation that’s often hiding in plain sight—how our beliefs about English, its variations, and bilingualism shape our world. We are going to explore the assumptions and ideologies that are surrounded by the English language. We are going to discuss what counts as “proper” English and if schools should place more value on a student's home language.
Discussion question 1: We are going to start off with the question, what influences our ideas about what counts as “proper” or “correct” English?
For many of us, “correct” English means Standard English—the kind taught in schools, used in formal writing, and heard on the news. But the truth is, Standard English is just one variety of English, and its status as “correct” is more about power than purity.
Standard English ignores the rich diversity of dialects like African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Chicano English, or regional varieties from the UK, the Caribbean, and beyond. I believe that there should be no such thing as “proper English”.
Discussion question 2: The next question is one that forms a big discussion. Should schools place more value on students’ home languages and dialects? Across the world, educational systems tend to prioritize a single “standard” language—often Standard English—while overlooking or even discouraging the use of other dialects and home languages.
Imagine walking into a classroom where your language, your dialect—isn’t just accepted, but celebrated. For many students, that’s not the reality. Language is more than a skill, it is a symbol of one's life. It is important for students to feel comfortable and like they belong while being in a classroom. Schools should make it a priority to place more value on students' home languages if not that just marginalizes and puts students in uncomfortable situations.
Discussion question 3: Have you ever experienced or witnessed language-based discrimination? How did it affect you or others? For me in high school I experienced one of my classmates not knowing English and we were presenting and his accent was very strong and his English isn't the best and the class was laughing at him whenever he spoke. He lost all confidence and felt so uncomfortable.
That is horrible. I have also experienced something similar in high school. One of my friends is Greek and he has a very strong accent so when he talks sometimes people mock him on the words he mispronounced. This limited him to speaking to some people; it made him feel uncomfortable and dumb.

Conclusion: Thankyou for joining us today and hopefully these discussions made you think. Bye everyone and thank you for listening to wordshift.