Sandra Lee McKay is a sociolinguist at San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...

. She has contributed to the study of pidgin

Pidgin

A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...

 and creole languages such as African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...

 (AAVE).

She writes that language may present a barrier for students who speak pidgin and creole languages. Unlike other languages such as Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 and Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, pidgin and creole language

Creole language

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...

s are not commonly recognized in classroom settings. As a result of this students are not taught the Standard American English (SAE) used on tests as a second language in the same ways as students who speaks Spanish or Chinese.

Background

Her interest in English as an international language developed from her extensive work in countries such as Chile, Hong Kong, Hungary, Latvia, Morocco, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand.

Books

• Teaching English as an International Language: Rethinking Goals and Approaches (2002, Oxford University Press, winner of the Ben Warren International Book Award),
• New Immigrants in the US: Readings for Second Language Educators (edited with Sau-ling Wong, 2000, Cambridge University Press)
• Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching (edited with Nancy Hornberger, 1996, Cambridge University Press),
• Teaching English Overseas: An Introduction (1992, published by Oxford University Press)