Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture Volume 12, Number 1 doi 10.1215/15314200-1416531 © 2011 by Duke University Press 69 Productive Paradoxes Vernacular Use in the Teaching of Composition and Literature Dohra Ahmad and Shondel J. Nero Introduction The question of where vernacular language fits in education has been primar- ily addressed in the field of applied linguistics. Vernacular literature, on the other hand, is a topic addressed by literary studies. However, the linkages between the two topics are obvious and compelling, providing fertile ground for research and linguistically informed pedagogy. Composition and literature instructors can benefit enormously from understanding how dialects operate and from incorporating vernacular literature into their curricula. Our aim in this article — informed by the basic linguistic principle of respect for all variet- ies of human languages — is to investigate the productive uses for vernacular language and literature in American secondary and university classrooms. In so doing, we hope also to provide a model for an interdisciplinary inquiry that bridges the fields of applied linguistics and literary studies. Beginning from a linguistic point of view, we outline the ways in which vernacular language has been historically devalued and marginalized, especially in educational settings, as a central part of an ideology of language standardization. We include literary examples, demonstrating that vernacu- lar literature conveys the central characteristics of several national literary traditions even while generating its own transnational conversation. Bring- ing together the linguistic and the literary, we close by proposing concrete means for incorporating vernacular language and literature in language arts,