Correcting Literacy

In “Other People’s Children,” Delpit discusses ways that teachers can approach dealing with students whose language is strongly affected by their culture. Sometimes when there are these pre-formed cultural blocks, it makes it more difficult to expose them to the more standardized, formal English that is taught in the classroom. She makes the point that forcing speakers to monitor their language for rules while speaking typically just produces silence, which is not a functional way to become literate. She then says that instead of correcting them for mistakes in their speaking–which are often just results of their culture and upbringing–to correct and standardize their English in their writing.

This draws a clear distinction between writing literacy and reading literacy. Is someone whose speaking has never been corrected going to be able to standardize their spoken language during appropriate occasions? Do you think that only being forced to standardize your writing and not your speaking is enough to function successfully in the professional world?