The Role of Language in Interactions With Others on Campus for Rural Appalachian College Students

Dialects of English spoken in rural, Southern Appalachia are heavily stigmatized in mainstream American culture, and speakers of Appalachian dialects are often subject to prejudice and stereotypes which can be detrimental in educational settings. We explored the experiences of rural, Southern Appala...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of college student development Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 47 - 64
Main Authors Dunstan, Stephany Brett, Jaeger, Audrey J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Johns Hopkins University Press 2016
Subjects
Appalachia
College Faculty
College Students
Higher Education
Inclusion
Language Role
Nonstandard Dialects
Peer Relationship
Power Structure
Rural Areas
Semi Structured Interviews
Social Bias
Sociolinguistics
Stereotypes
Student Attitudes
Student Characteristics
Student Diversity
Teacher Student Relationship
United States (South)
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Summary:Dialects of English spoken in rural, Southern Appalachia are heavily stigmatized in mainstream American culture, and speakers of Appalachian dialects are often subject to prejudice and stereotypes which can be detrimental in educational settings. We explored the experiences of rural, Southern Appalachian college students and the role speaking a stigmatized dialect has in their interactions with others on campus. Semistructured interviews were conducted with students from rural, Southern Appalachia attending a 4-year university in a Southern city, and sociolinguistic analysis of participants' speech was performed to provide detailed linguistic description that helped explain the influence of language on these interactions. Findings suggest that interactions with peers and faculty are influenced by students' dialect on several levels. The findings have implications for improving diversity and inclusion programming on campus as well as highlighting the importance of research that considers language as a differentiating student characteristic in higher education research and practice.
ISSN:0897-5264
1543-3382
1543-3382
DOI:10.1353/csd.2016.0009