Maintaining a Non-Standard Dialect: The Advantages!

All traditional varieties and dialects hold a special place in the culture of their speakers. As Andrew Woodfield once put it, "A language is not just a medium, a symbol-system or a code. It is also the repository of a cultural tradition, a way of living, and of expressing which helps to covey a sense of identity upon its native-speakers." Thus, maintaining non-standard dialects would be advantageous in the sense that it would preserve cultural diversity and identities. Many speakers of AAVE, Hawaiian Pidgin, and Swiss German (all of which are "lower prestige dialects") have developed a pride in their mother tongue, as it gives them a sense of uniqueness and culture. Taking this away would result in a bland, monotonous world.

Also, maintaining non-standard dialects also may improve the education of the speakers of these non-standard dialects. Because culture and language is so closely knitted, children would be able to learn Standard English much easier if they are taught using their mother tongue as well. Often times, learning ASE is not only difficult to learn because of its grammatical and vocabulary technicalities, but also because it is so much of a culture shock or culture clash. Thus, since children would be able to understand concepts better in their inherited language, they might improve on their acquisition of the standard language.