Axis Special Issue: Imagining the Decolonizing Writing Center

Decolonizing a Writing Lab: Training Consultants through Analogies

Bonnie Devet
College of Charleston—South Carolina

No writing center wants to colonize its clients by having them code-switch from home languages into the mystical beast known as Standard American English (SAE). So, when my college freshman writing program emphasized students should be able to code-mesh or use their home languages in their academic writing, the Writing Lab has been eager to help. It is right and proper. But, herein lie confusion and consternation. Linguistics defines code-switching one way while the education world uses a slightly different definition. What’s a director to do when training consultants?

To get the terms straight, let’s go back a moment. The linguistic definition of code-switching, although unquestionably a foggy phrase, means mixing or “intertwining” (McWhorter 115) languages, usually in the beginning, middle, or end of sentences. You move from one language to another, within the same sentence, as in “Gracias for the lovely gift. Está awesome.” Frequently, you do not realize the change has occurred like when I, a Southerner, return home and start using “y’all” again just to fit in, or  an English speaker unknowingly switches to Japanese, or a French speaker finds there is just no word for their idea so they switch to le smartboard (“Five”).  

This linguistic meaning, however, is not what is currently circulating. Rebecca Wheeler, Rachel Swords, and Vershawn Ashanti Young have altered the concept. They define code-switching as a complete shifting of language, say from African American to SAE, especially in public or professional arenas. Such abandoning of language and, hence, identity can, indeed, feel degrading, as if the speaker’s language is not valuable (Young 53-55). To be accurate, though, what Young et al. are condemning should be called “situational code-switching”: speakers change their code (like having to use SAE) based on whom they are talking to, the topic, and when they are talking (“Situational”).  

The term “code-meshing” is less problematic. Beginning as a theory or general pedagogy (Hardee), it has evolved to become a method in itself. Instead of students having to turn on or off languages, code-meshing stresses they tap into their linguistic knowledge, adding to and, thereby, enhancing SAE. In other words, code-meshing means students who have internalized two or more languages are encouraged to use their range of linguistic repertoire (Hardee). This code-meshing may, for example, result in a student writing, “This is the best movie of all time and that’s on periodt” where “periodt” is a more extreme version of “period” found at the end of a sentence for rhetorical emphasis (Hutchison and Morris). Code-meshing lets students see their home code has value and worth.

With such nuances distinguishing situational code-switching from code-meshing, what can I do, as a director, to make these concepts as vivid as possible and to provide consultants with concrete steps for helping students?

To help consultants, I define situational code-switching with an analogy: you dress one way to go bowling but another to attend your prom. You alter completely, based on the context or situation.  For code-meshing, I use Young’s metaphor of black and white piano keys. No one makes music with just one or the other (Young 57, 60); a pianist needs both. The value of code-meshing, then, is that it “encourages speakers and writers to fuse the standard with native speech habits, to color their writing with what they bring home” (Young 64-65). Young’s own example illustrates the point, calling code-meshing “a blending dos idiomas or copping enough Standard English to really make yo’ AAE be Da Bomb” (50). Then, to demonstrate that code-meshing has degrees of usage, depending on the occasion, I use Lori Salem and Leslie Allison’s analogy of stage lighting: it’s never just on or off; rather, it varies based on the needs of the stage, the actors, the script. Students “mesh” into SAE what will be most useful, rhetorically.

Next, to help consultants conduct consultations, I follow Brennah Hutchison and Angela Morris’ suggestions, which ask consultants to do the following:

— let clients know that there is a debate about language and reassure the clients that they have already mastered a valuable code.

— explain that SAE is just another code.

— ask clients to match code to context and rhetorical choice.

— use their (consultants’) your own home dialects when conducting a session just to model how to code-switch and code-mesh.

So, when terminology is muddled, I clarify through vivid, handy analogies and offer concrete steps to use in consultations. In this way, consultants are aware of varying definitions yet have a clear path forward to help clients.

Works cited

“Five Reasons Why People Code-Switch” NPR. 13 April 2013. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/04/13/177126294/five-reasons-why-people-code-switch.

Hardee, Jay. “Code Meshing and Code Switching.” Anti-Racist Praxis, American University, 2018,  https://subjectguides.library.american.edu/c.php?g=1025915&p=7749939.  

Hutchison, Brennah, and Angela Morris. “’Mesh It, Y’all’: Promoting Code-Meshing Through Writing Center Workshops.” The Peer Review, n. d., http://thepeerreview-iwca.org/issues/issue-4-2/mesh-it-yall-promoting-code-meshing-through-writing-center-workshops. Accessed 25 June 2021.

McWhorter, John H. The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, W. H. Freeman Books, 2001.

Salem, Lori, and Leslie Allison. “Meshing Together: Exploring Practical Methods for Enacting Code-  meshing Pedagogies in the Writing Center.” International Writing Center Association Conference, 22 Oct. 2021, online.

“Situational Code-switching.” English Encyclopedia, 2021, https://www.enclyclo.co.uk/meaning-of-Situational_code_switching/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.

Wheeler, Rebecca S., and Rachel Swords. Code-Switching: Teaching Standard English in Urban Classrooms (Theory & Research into Practice). National Council of Teachers of English, 2006.

Young, Vershawn Ashanti. “’Nah, We Straight.’: An Argument Against Code Switching.”  Journal of Advanced Composition, vol. 29, no. 1-2, 2009, pp. 49-76.