Using African American Vernacular English to Teach Standard American English - Research Paper Example

Using African American Vernacular English to Teach Standard American English ID Linguistics 12 May The paper examines the use of African American Vernacular English as a strategy for facilitating the acquisition of Standard English. First, the need for such a renewed approach is discussed. The controversies revolving the use of the methods are highlighted like enforcing marginalization of Black youth. Thereafter, these myths are debunked by illustrating that African American English is a dialect in its own right, and students tend to learn better through it. Finally, several strategies have been examined and justifications made for how they can work. The use of contrastive strategies can sensitize Black youth to differences between Standard English and their vernacular thus assisting them in learning the standard dialect. Topic The topic under consideration is “How linguistic features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or African American English (AAE) have been used to teach Standard English.” The dialect is also called Black English or Ebonics. African American children have performed relatively poorly in English classes, and one of the reasons behind this performance could be an admonition of their native dialects. Educators need a new strategy that works with black vernacular rather than against it. The use of AAVE as a facilitative language for Standard Education can boost communication and cooperation between learners and teachers. Discussion In 1996, a California school board sparked a lot of controversy when it announced that it would include home languages in classrooms, and that teachers would be trained appropriately to work with such students (Pullum, 1999). This was nothing new in American schools, but unlike other uncontroversial languages like Spanish, the most predominant language spoken by children in the school was AAVE. Media experts, African American educators, White middle class teachers, Black families and several other stakeholders lashed out against this policy proponents. A number of them, especially black parents, felt that using AAVE in the classroom would condemn black communities to narrow ethnic enclaves. They worried that their children would be unable to fit into the wider society. Others in the media made ignorant comments about AAVE by calling it nothing more than street slang. These individuals objected to the use of AAVE in classes because it was perceived as a watered-down version of Standard English, laden with mistakes, mispronunciations and abusive slurs (Perez, 1999). Contrary to what these critics assume, AAVE is a dialect in its own right. Slang is limited to small subcultures, lacks grammatical rules and is used among restricted age groups. It also fades away and gets replaced by new words and terminologies in relatively short periods of time. Dialects on the other hand are stable and exist in communities for long periods. Furthermore, they have rules of pronunciation and grammar that are symptomatic of other more prestigious languages (Pullum, 1999). In order to understand the validity of the AAVE dialect, one can examine one rule; the auxiliary verb to be. Opponents claim that African American English speakers misuse the verb because it is either disregarded in sentences or misused. Omission of auxiliary forms of the verb ‘be’ can be omitted, but only under certain rules. If an auxiliary verb is negative, AAVE speakers cannot omit it. For instance they will say “I ain’t your child” when meaning “I am not your child.” Alternatively, it is obligatory to use be when talking about a habitual thing such as: “He be eating.” when implying “He usually eats” and not “He is eating.” Therefore, if a non Ebonics speaker says “What you be sayin’?”, African Americans would immediately know that this is a not a native AAVE speaker. The form be is only used in such sentences to reflect habit and not as a verb connoting present tense. Therefore, the correct way of expressing this thought in the dialect would be to ask “What you sayin’?” (Pullum, 1999). These examples indicate that AAVE contains elaborate structures and rules, which must be followed in order to speak the language. In this regard, it is a dialect in its own right. Perhaps the controversy surrounding its use and application in the classroom stems from historical prejudices against the African American community. Standard English (SE) is more prestigious than Ebonics, and rules of grammar are not the only reason why this is the case. As an accident of history, Black English came after SE in the US. It just happens that Standard English has no double negatives while Ebonics does. In Italy, the standard form of Italian has double negatives while non standards forms do not. This indicates that if history could have been reversed, then linguistic features in African American English would have been the norm while SE would have been criticized. Educators have to acknowledge the multicultural climate of their students. Accepting the fact that African American English is a native tongue for many African American speakers does not necessarily threaten mastery of Standard English. It is evident that most workplaces and formal institutions require employees to use SE, so educators ought to prioritize this matter. However, getting non SE speakers to become proficient in Standard English may require them to acknowledge native tongues of their students. It can be a route towards effective reading and writing of the standard form (Mufwene, 1999). A case exists for the use of AAVE in the classroom as several findings support it. Research from Stanford University shows that children in Ebonics programs tend to report better performance than those who do not. These children’s reading and writing abilities improved dramatically in Standard English (Whitney, 2005). The strategy allows educators to recognize voices that have been ignored for centuries. In the past, educators downplayed the relevance and significance of the Black English dialect. They often responded to it by constantly correcting African American children, punishing them or ignoring Ebonics altogether. This method appears not to work since only 56% of black students graduate from high school while an even larger percentage do not know how to read and write Standard English (Whitney, 2005). One of the explanations behind this poor performance is English teachers’ ignorance of their students’ diversity. When teachers have a negative attitude towards Black English, they are likely to pass on that mindset to their students. African American children will interpret such attitudes as judgments against them; many may assume that their native tongue is inferior or worse than the standard. When white, middle class educators presume that AAVE speakers are less intelligent or slower than the rest, then they diminish their expectations. With diminished expectation comes reduced performance as children believe what they are told. It simply makes more sense to work with students in their native tongue rather than to fight it at every opportunity. Once educators understand the need to use Ebonics in the classroom for effective Standard English, it is necessary for them to understand how this can work. Non Standard English speakers often struggle with mastery of the dialect because it contains structures more consistent with writing. AAVE is a dialect that is more consistent with oral forms, so complex structures may be problematic for the group. Furthermore, when students do not perceive the differences between their native tongue and the standard form, it is likely that they are going to carry forward structural forms in their native tongues into SE. For example, “I ain’t got nothing to say to you.” may be erroneously transferred into SE because Black English speakers may not know that ain’t is not a recognized emphatic negator. Instead, it would be more appropriate to use do not, as in “I do not have anything to say to you.”These generalizations and assumptions often cause African American speakers to move back and forth between their vernacular and SE in the classroom. Humiliating and shaming students who make these errors is not an effective way of correcting the problem (Perez, 1999). It is better for teachers to use contrastive methods among Ebonics speakers. They can role play with their students on how similar things are said in Standard English versus African American English. Lessons can be structured so that syntax characteristics as well as phonological ones are easily observable to students. First, educators ought to familiarize themselves with these different forms of expression though books, poems, movies, television programs among others. Likewise, they can expose their students to similar variations of dialect and initiate discussions with students on the same. In these conversations, they may ask students about settings where certain dialects are appropriate while others are not (Mufwene, 1999). Another method that may be used is the word discrimination drill. This process involves saying sentences in Black English and Standard English then asking children to state whether they are similar or different. For instance “Petra’s house is leaking” and “Petra house is leaking.” (Perez, 1999). To these two sentences children would say the word ‘different’ because one is in SE and the other is in Ebonics. Alternatively, an educator may use the home school discrimination method where they ask children to state whether a pattern is from their home district or not. This strategy is quite similar to the word discrimination drill except for the fact that it requires speakers to identify which one is Black English and which one is not. Response drills may be a more natural way of learning SE through AAVE. Here, students are expected to give responses to statements or questions in the same dialect that the teacher uses. For instance, the teacher may say “Jamal play football” and the class responds in Ebonics by stating that “No he don’t.” Thereafter, the teacher can state: “Jamal plays football” and the children can say: “No he doesn’t”. Teachers thus try to achieve this through certain stimulus patterns. Students ought to respond by changing tenses, plurals and grammatical forms in the corresponding dialect (Fogel & Ehri, 2006). Other holistic strategies are also available that build on simple sentences as well. Educational Implications If African American English is adopted by educators to teach Standard English, then individuals using the vernacular are likely to understand SE more effectively. They will learn how to distinguish between their own dialects and the standard forms. Furthermore, it starts as a contact point between oral communication and the more structured Standard English. This approach acknowledges cultural diversity of the African American population. As a result, it is likely that students will retain their self esteem and interest in education. The strategy works by awakening Black students to alternative methods of communication as all techniques involve comparison and switching between AAVE and SE. References Fogel, H., & Ehri, L. (2006). Teaching African American English forms to Standard American English-speaking teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 57(5), 464-480. Mufwene, S. (1999). Ebonics and Standard English in the classroom: Some issues. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Perez, S. (1999). Using Ebonics or Black English as a bridge to teaching Standard English. Classroom Leadership, 2(7), 40. Pullum, G. (1999). African American Vernacular English is not Standard English with mistakes. Westport, CT: Praeger. Whitney, J. (2005). Five easy pieces: Steps towards integrating AAVE into the classroom. English Journal, 94(5), 64-70. Read More