Jamie Kenneth Banks

One day it had gotten to that point and I was in the German School director’s office big mad about racism. We’re allowed to speak in English if we absolutely need to: if it’s urgent, say, medically or emotionally. It might have been easier for barely-intermediate me…but dammit, I was gonna show her I was THAT insistent. That I’d done the work to be able to say this. She blinked as I took a breath. “Your German is better when you’re angry & have something to say!”

In my daily class on culture and history we intermediate students had been given handouts with language for how to debate and discuss with more nuance. I’m of two minds there…on the one hand….. While I partially agree….

So often in the college classroom, “nuance” mistranslates to “diplomacy.” We are supposed to be above polemics and manifestos. Even in these illiberal times humanities instructors require civil discourse, dismissing the extent of our humanities.

Screw that! It is the language teacher’s responsibility to enable students to express more and more of their full selves and thinking. The level 2 sentence starters we got were part of that–but looking back, I would’ve wanted language for insisting, doubling down, being firm, holding lines, standing with conviction in our truths. No, I insist. I meant it–I stand by what I just said (and here’s why). Don’t misunderstand me. Let me be so clear here. Students need to be able to defend themselves from patronizing assumptions, too: I said it with my whole heart, and no, I didn’t confuse my foreign words. It surprises you? Disturbs the classroom peace? Okay. Please listen to me and don’t put what I said down to my limited language proficiency.

There are other discourse tools students need besides qualifying and insistence (see the back-down move there?) They need to give reasons, debate evidence, make logical connections, weave in anecdotes, signal how much they trust the source they’re quoting. But fighting words are high-yield, even just pedagogically: we remember things better when we have strong feelings learning them. Don’t be the language teacher who suggests, however supportively, that a student needs more language experience before they can attempt the heights of the issues that have true stakes. There are humans at stake.