Recognizing Code Switching as Valid Communication

“I ain’t mad atcha” or “I am not angry with you.” Which should you say? Well, we’re teachers. Our quick response: “The latter.” Grammar and usage are typical components of speech rubrics— topics students need to think about as part of building a spoken presentation. But that doesn’t mean it’s always correct to choose “proper” grammatical constructions. The correct response to the question above is actually another question altogether: “Who is the audience?” [......