COLEGIO DEL CENTRO

“SLANG”

PRESENTA:
ANNEL YASSEL MEDINA OSORIO

ASESOR DE LA INVESTIGACIÓN
SANDRA ELIZABETH FLORES

ZACATECAS, ZAC., 12 JUNIO DE 2020

This study attempts an analysis of a restructured Swahili variety spoken by Nairobi’s street
community: Kinoki. Adapting tools of sociolinguistic inquiry and focusing on Kinoki’s
divergence from the dominant urban slang, Sheng, the study discusses attitudes toward
divergent terms referencing the street community, street
activities, and law enforcement officials. Results indicate that street children, unlike their
school-going peers living in the city’s low-income neighborhoods, redefine pejoratives that
devalue and stigmatize street people and their lifestyle. Instead, Kinoki empowers the
marginalized community to construct a positive identity,
to ameliorate representations of street lifestyle, and to redefine neologisms that reference
in-group (us) and out-group (them) experiences. Further, the study situates Kinoki within
Nairobi’s complex linguistic environment and explores its social roles
Background
In order to better understand how a marginal group, otherized by the dominant
culture, appropriates language in order to redefine itself, it may suffice to focus,
albeit briefly, on literature that discusses identity construction and the social
functions of pejoratives. Duszak (2002) contends that people construct their social identities
on the basis of various socially and culturally relevant parameters such as ethnicity,
nationality, gender, age, and style of living. Although the sense of belonging to a group
fulfills human desires as people share things with other people, such Mutonya 171 aligning
also facilitates a sense of detachment, distance, and even hostility from others. The
detachment and hostility are usually manifested in language and specifically so in the use of
pejoratives. Allen (1991) argues that pejoratives directed at a social group have both
immediate and delayed indirect social effects:
“Name-calling is a social act in speech, a weapon used against out-groups and
their individual members…. All terms of abuse for unlike social groups serve to
establish, justify, and maintain the social pecking order, or to protest it.” More
significantly, Allen (1991, pp. 217-21) observes:

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The thinking that underlies name-calling is that They are not Us, and that We take our
identity in part as not-Them. They are the opposite of Us, or at best somewhere between Us
and Them. When the informal name of a social out-group or in-group is uttered, it is
understood in relation to its unspoken opposite. To
name Them implicitly names Us, if only as Us. Or to name Us with an ironic epithet given
to Us by Them… implicitly names Them. Each name makes sense in relation to other
names in this aggregate-level discourse.

This research explores how underrepresented urban students made sense of their first
experience with high school science. The study sought to identify how the assimilation of
students in the science classroom reflected their interpretation of science itself in relation to
their academic identities. The main objectives were to examine students' responses to the
epistemic, behavioral, and discursive norms of the science classroom. At the end of the
academic year, 29 students were interviewed about their experiences in a ninth and tenth
grade life science course. The results indicate that the students experienced a relative ease
in appropriating the epistemic and cultural behaviors of science, while expressing great
difficulty in appropriating the discursive practices of science. The implications of these
findings reflect the broader need to place greater emphasis on the relationship between
student identity and their development of scientific literacy.

Theoretical Framework
Science Education and Culturally
Sensitive Learning Environments
Given the changes in the
demographic makeup of classrooms
across the nation, developing
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culturally sensitive learning
environments has taken on a
prominent role in science education
research (Lee, 2001; Lee & Fradd,
1998; Warren, Ballenger,
Ogonowski, Roseberry, &
Hudicourt-
Barnes, 2001). These studies
provide conceptual depth, yet
implicate the need to identify the
components of student identity that
are potentially at odds with the
culture of science classrooms.
Lee (2001) provided the research
community with much needed
direction regarding the

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relationship between student
identity, language, and classroom
learning as she called for a
connection between mainstream
expectations and student identities:
Instruction should enable diverse
students to connect their cultural norms
with mainstream
expectations. Instruction should also
allow diverse students to meet national
standards as
well as maintain their cultural and
linguistic identities. In addition,
assessment practices
should maximize opportunities to
demonstrate diverse students’
knowledge and abilities in
ways compatible with their
backgrounds. (p. 500)
Global and Local Factors Influence Urban Slang

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 . Granted that the distinct nature of any slang is shaped by local conditions, the global
influences that contribute to the shaping of the mixed code can hardly be discounted. The
extensive reach of information technology coupled with enhanced social mobility and
interactions has precipitated the contact between different languages and cultures.
Inevitably, forms of expression among urban youths in Africa manifest varied degrees of
influences from urban Black culture in the diaspora. Notably, the appropriation and
subsequent localization of the American hip-hop and Caribbean reggae cultures in poor
neighborhoods in many African cities point to the expansive linguistic and cultural fusions.
Consider for instance the creative appropriation of the hip-hop genre in articulating issues
of concern to African youths. Although African hip-hop reflects the rhythm, style, and
persona of the American genre, African artists use urban slangs such as Sheng, Tsotsitaal,
and Urban Wolof to articulate themes relevant to the lives of urban youths in their
respective regions. For example, the social agency of African hip-hop is effective in
promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and illuminating the plight of the urban poor.

Theoretical Framework
Science Education and Culturally Sensitive Learning Environments

Given the changes in the demographic makeup of classrooms across the nation, developing
culturally sensitive learning environments has taken on a prominent role in science
education research (Lee, 2001; Lee & Fradd, 1998; Warren, Ballenger, Ogonowski,
Roseberry, & Hudicourt-Barnes, 2001). These studies provide conceptual depth, yet
implicate the need to identify the
components of student identity that are potentially at odds with the culture of science
classrooms.
Lee (2001) provided the research community with much needed direction regarding the
relationship between student identity, language, and classroom learning as she called for a
connection between mainstream expectations and student identities: Instruction should
enable diverse students to connect their cultural norms with mainstream expectations.
Instruction should also allow diverse students to meet national standards as well as
maintain their cultural and linguistic identities. In addition, assessment practices should

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maximize opportunities to demonstrate diverse students’ knowledge and abilities in ways
compatible with their backgrounds.

Slang is words or phrases that are informal language, and it is typically seen used in speech
more often than writing. It can be specific to a particular group of people or context;
therefore, the meanings of the words may not be apparent to all people
Civilized society tends to divide into a dominant culture and various subcultures that
flourish within the dominant framework. The subcultures show specialized linguistic
phenomena, varying widely in form and content, that depend on the nature of the groups
and their relation to each other and to the dominant culture. The shock value of slang stems
largely from the verbal transfer of the values of a subculture to diametrically opposed
values in the dominant culture. Names such as fuzz, pig, fink, bull, and dick for policemen
were not created by officers of the law. (The humorous “dickless tracy,” however, meaning
a policewoman, was coined by male policemen.)

Conclusion
The findings of this study implicate science discourse as a problematic component of
sciencelearning. Of the three aspects of scientific culture discussed (science epistemology,
the practices ofscientific research, and science discourse) students expressed the conflicts
they encountereddespite communicating an ability to use the epistemology and practices of
science. Despiteexpressing a range of ideas about the epistemic and cultural practices of
science, it was students’articulation of the challenges they encountered when attempting to
use science discourse thatproved to be intriguing.As students identified the challenges they
encountered with science discourse, they providedempirical answers to the research queries
that underscore this investigation. The initial explorationof how students’ used science
discourse highlighted how the acculturation of the discursivepractices of science presented
challenges that were not experienced as they appropriated thebehavioral and epistemic
norms. Ultimately, the highly political nature of public discourse and itsconnection to
student identity presented students with the challenge of balancing their identitywith their
use of science discourse.This notion of science discourse presenting a challenge for
minority students suggests that theuse of science discourse framed issues of access for these

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students. As students found it difficult toembed a sense of self in the discursive practices of
science classrooms, their comments reflectedtheir belief that science was unique, yet only
applicable to the classroom culture. The issue ofstudents’ experiencing cultural conflict
with the language of science has been explored from aperspective that identified English
language learners’ conflicts with using science language.

Reference.
Mutonya, M. (2007). Redefining Nairobi’s Streets: A study of slang, marginalization, and
identity. Journal of Global Initiatives, 2(2), 169-185.

Mutonya, M. (2010). Redefining Nairobi's Streets: Study of Slang, Marginalization, and

Berger, J. (2008). Identity signaling, social influence, and social contagion. Understanding
peer influence in children and adolescents, 181-199.

Jian-xin, D. (2010). Anti-language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of

Bucholtz, M. (2004). Styles and stereotypes: The linguistic negotiation of identity among
Laotian American youth. Pragmatics, 14(2-3), 127-147.

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