Mike Rose's, The Discourse of Academics, is a journal article that talks about a problem happening today. Many students are under-prepared for the classes that they will encounter in their schools, because they are not familiar with the type of scholarly language used by the teacher, textbooks, or peers. Once students are more comfortable with their environment, they can become more comfortable with themselves and participate in discussions. Moreover, participating in the discussions can only increase their ability to further their understanding. "The more comfortable and skillful students become with this kind of influential talk, the more they will be included in further conversations...," (Rose 138). I completely agree with Mike Rose when he goes on to say that students need to have some opportunities to challenge their own ideas and hard-wired beliefs through discussion.
Even though I have never actually had a big problem like this of my own, I understand that a lot of students today do. This is definitely something worth thinking about and hopefully someone will help these students who don't feel prepared and are uncomfortable with their situation. Mike Rose has already provided multiple solutions to help address this problem. Some solutions that he suggested were to give the students opportunities to "develop writing strategies" and give them a chance to "talk about the ways the may have felt excluded." I think the main idea that Rose was trying to give out was that teachers need to make sure that every student feels included in each class and comfortable with themselves. If teachers can do this, then students will learn more effectively and will be more successful in the future.
I think you are right -- Rose does give us some concrete ways through which teachers can help give students fluency to the language of academics. As a teacher myself, I have found that his suggestions are valid, but it does not mean that I am not met with resistance. In fact, often I am met with a lot of resistance, and this can come in the form of shame, reticence, or resignation. I think it is very difficult for a teacher to show a student that there is another way, another language, other than the one he or she grew up with.
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