Teaching Twain

 Mark Twain is a giant in American literature. His work has influenced millions of individuals and touched as many hearts. However, when it comes to teaching his works, there are many difficulties to overcome. In their article Blame it on Twain, Southard and Muller offer some ideas for dealing with the legendary Huckleberry Finn. These four techniques give us insight into the language of the past and the ideas we currently hold.

In Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, many of his characters speak in different regional tongues. At the beginning of the book, Twain even states that, “In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri Negro dialect; the extremist form of the back woods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this time” (Southard and Muller, p. 630). While this is an amazing accomplishment, it poses a challenge to educators who must teach this historic novel. This is a difficult book to read; how can it be understood and taught to a classroom of students who probably have little interest in the subject? This article offers four possible ideas to enhance learning.

First, you could teach the dialects and their rules. While this might be tedious and involve pages of note taking, it would definitely help students understand what is being said when each character speaks. Exercises could be given where each child would decode a passage and explain what it means in our own dialect. There is an issue with this approach, however. Scholars disagree on how many dialects are actually in this book. If this is not firmly established, then how can we expect high schoolers to translate these passages? Despite this road bump, learning the dialects could be interesting and informative.

The second approach involves word formation. There are many new words in Huckleberry Finn that were made by modifying adjective and verbs. They are created by adding new affixes to adjectives or creating new verb forms. It is almost like Twain was creating his own slang. Students can have fun creating their own new words in the same way Twain did. They could also discover the rules that Twain uses to make the new words. The article outlines this idea: “Is Twain consistently using the same process of word formation? What governs his use of the hyphen?” (Southard and Muller, p. 632). In other words, what is the grammar behind word formation? This leads us to the third approach of teaching Twain: grammar. He employs many writing techniques that are not correct in our English language. Examples of this include his use of past tense and pass participle, multiple negatives, and pronominal appositives. Students should know that this kind of writing is not academic and should be avoided in education. The educator could have them become the teacher and correct the grammar errors in the writing. This way, they get exposed to Twain’s dialects while also being reminded of their own.

The final teaching approach this reading offers is sociolinguistics, which is the examination of dialects. Students discover that the way a person talks can tell us about their characteristics. They investigate the differences between formal and informal speech. An English teacher can use their favorite tool, comparison, to have the children contrast their own language with other dialects. Finally, they can use this past speech as a possible origin for today’s language. A great example is Black Vernacular English (BVE). The article says, “Of interest here is the fact that Jim’s speech exhibits may of the characteristics associated with BVE” (Southard and Muller, p. 633). This is an interesting connection and one worth examining in the classroom.

This particular encounter with BVE made me think about the unspoken rules of our own day. Why is it acceptable to speak one way and not another? Why is BVE not acceptable for academic work even though it has grammar rules and pronunciations? The answer to these questions is culture. In America, we expect people to speak a certain way. To us, it shows that they are educated and care about their future. To speak English is to have read books, listened to smart individuals, and taken the time to refine their speech. While this may not be fair to people who have not grown up in this society, it is the way the world works. However, even though we need to adapt to modern English, we can still appreciate other dialects and the history they give us. As a future educator of English, part of my job will be to help the next generation speak in a way that will pave the road to success, but also remember the words that got us here. If I were to teach Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, I would have my students examine the dialects, learn how they have affected our own language, and then correct them to show what kind of speech they should use.

Overall, I appreciate how Southard and Muller suggested teaching Twain. Their ideas on dialect, word formation, grammar, and sociolinguistics are informative not only to teachers, but to students as well. I hope I get the chance to teach this amazing novel one day and show students the importance of the past the necessary tools of the now.