"To learn a new language is one more window from which to look at the world." — Chinese Proverb

The Problem: Students Don’t Speak “School English”

Let’s bust a myth: Just because a student speaks English at home doesn’t mean they speak the kind of English expected in school. And just because a teacher and student both speak English doesn’t mean they’re speaking the same version of it.

This misunderstanding is creating real harm. National data shows that Black students and English learners routinely score below average on standardized tests. But many of these students aren’t learning English for the first time—they’ve grown up speaking it. So why are they still falling behind?

One reason lies in a critical, overlooked factor: linguistic mismatch. Students from Black, Brown, and multilingual communities often speak a dialect of English—like African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Chicano English—that doesn’t align with Standard American English (SAE), the default in schools and testing. That mismatch turns into an obstacle when we don’t recognize the rules and logic in these dialects or value them in the classroom.

The Hack: All Educators Must Be Language Teachers

Whether you teach physics, art, or kindergarten reading, you are a language teacher. Why? Because every classroom is a language classroom.

Language is more than vocabulary and grammar. It’s how we learn, express, and connect. When a student’s way of speaking isn’t acknowledged or respected, we create a divide between who they are and what they’re allowed to learn. This isn’t just about ELL students. It’s about all learners who walk into school speaking a dialect or variation of English different from what’s in the textbook.

Want to take a deeper dive? Check out:

Your Words Are Fire: 10 Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies to Speak the Language of Belonging and Help Students Learn, Express Ideas, and Solve Problems

The Case for Teaching All Students as Language Learners

• All students are still acquiring language, whether it's academic, social, or cultural.

• Students who speak multiple dialects or vernaculars are essentially bilingual and deserve strategies tailored to their needs.

• Research shows that strategies for English learners improve outcomes for all students—not just those formally labeled ELLs.

If we want to close opportunity gaps, we need to rethink what counts as a language barrier—and who we think needs language instruction.

Strategies That Work: A Blueprint for Teachers

You don’t need to be certified in ESL to implement these practices. Here’s how to start.

Step 1: Learn the Languages in Your Room

Yes, even the versions of English. Survey students and families. Ask about how they speak at home. Listen closely to how students express themselves. Do they drop the "g" in gerunds? Use double negatives? These aren’t “mistakes”—they're features of a rule-based dialect that deserves respect.

Step 2: Teach Vocabulary in Context

Instead of isolated word lists, embed vocabulary in meaningful content. Add a word box to assignments. Use sentence stems. Directly compare a student’s spoken dialect to SAE, not to correct, but to build bridges. A student who says “She be running” understands tense—it’s just expressed differently.

Step 3: Use Culturally Relevant Texts

Include books and materials that reflect your students’ communities, languages, and experiences. Engagement increases when students see themselves in what they’re learning. In math, this could mean using local references in word problems. In science, it might be connecting prefixes to real-life language examples.

Step 4: Start Small and Reflect Often

Choose one or two strategies to try. Reflect with your PLC. Ask:

• What are my students’ linguistic needs?

• How do my instructional choices help—or hinder—language growth?

• Am I validating or correcting dialect?

Progress starts when we replace “fixing” students with understanding them.

Addressing the Pushback

Let’s confront the common objections:

“All my students speak English.”
Sure—but do they speak school English? Social and academic English are not the same. Dialectical differences often hide beneath surface-level fluency. That gap affects reading comprehension, writing, and even classroom participation.

“This adds more to my plate.”
Actually, it redefines your plate. These strategies aren’t extra—they’re better ways to do what you’re already doing. They make Tier 1 instruction more inclusive, reducing the need for remediation later.

“Teaching dialect is lowering the bar.”
It’s the opposite. Honoring students’ home languages doesn’t mean settling. It means building from what they know—not pretending it doesn’t exist. Teaching students to code-switch and compare dialects to SAE equips them with linguistic dexterity.

What You Can Do Tomorrow

Here are three actions any educator can take:

• Survey your class: What languages or dialects do your students speak at home? Use informal conversations, quick polls, or entry slips.

• Compare dialects: During a writing lesson, ask students to write how they would say something at home, then in SAE. Use it as a launch point for teaching grammar, not a correction.

• Add inclusive texts: Find books or articles by authors who write in dialect, code-switch, or reflect your students’ linguistic background.

The Turning Point: Why This Hack Matters Now

America’s classrooms are more linguistically diverse than ever. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of non-White public school students jumped from 48% to 54%. English learners now make up over 10% of the student population.

And yet, our instruction still assumes that SAE is the only “correct” English.

This hack is a call to action. It’s backed by research and driven by empathy. Teachers who start their planning with ELL strategies—vocabulary support, rich language input, cultural connections—create lessons that work better for everyone.

We don’t need more remediation. We need more recognition—of the rich, rule-governed, meaningful language our students bring with them every day.

Final Word

Every educator has the power to validate, support, and grow their students’ language skills—no matter the subject or grade. When we shift our mindset from “fixing English” to “building on language,” we do more than teach. We liberate.

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