- I agree that we acquire primary discourse “by being a member of a primary socializing group”, as Gee says. I agree with this from my own personal experience, as the standard primary discourse of, for example, being part of the middle class, being part of a family, being a twin, etc. were all things that I had learned from my day to day life in my house, and not one that I learned in the classroom.
- Delpits theory of disagreeing with Gee on his claim of it being “impossible, to acquire such a [dominant] discourse” is extremely useful because it sheds light on the stories that she uses in the rest of her article, for example her story of Bill Trent. She uses these stories to prove her theorem right that Gee is wrong by showing how he learned a dominant discourse and was able to enter a discourse himself.
- Gee’s claim that “women and minorities” may be faced with “adopting values that deny their primary identities” rests upon the questionable assumption that when adopting or learning a primary discourse, it will be so strong or important that whoever is learning will be forced to abandon their other identities, which I few as incorrect. This can disproven with evidence from Jordans piece as well as Delpits piece.
- Jordan is right that white standards control our “verbal proficiency… including speech”, however she seems on dubious grounds given that her article was written near 30 years ago, so, while acknowledging that white culture is still very proficient from a verbal and speech standpoint, the influence is certainly not as strong as it was when the article was written.
Blog for Owen
