While teaching in rural, relatively isolated schools, I’ve realized exposure to and interaction with diverse languages, other than localized lexicons, is limited. Growing up in a military family provided me the opportunity to learn correct pronunciation of African American and Latinx names, much of which has carried over into my career as a teacher in terms of oral readings, pronouncing names, and helping students clarify the names of characters from various cultural backgrounds. Students who are raised in culturally homogenous communities tend have limited exposure to first and last names from various origins. Learning the sounds of these unique surnames provides decoding insight into the English language and many others we can experience or learn. We are a country constructed with Spanish, Arabic, Pacific Islander, Polish, and Russian surnames, among hundreds of others. S., but I believe teachers who abbreviate their names by reducing long names or complicated pronunciations to the initial consonant or initial vowel sound are denying students exposure to unique oral language. Maybe I seem “mean” because I won’t let kids call me Mr. Nonetheless, I expect my students to learn my name in spelling and pronunciation. Even then, the /e/ is relatively silent and the “y” functions as an /i/. She’ll get my name wrong too! I have one of those great names that has a single vowel. Stygles, as in /Sty/ /guls/, is not an easy name to say or read. Throughout the year, I find a number of variations to my last name in writing and speech.
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