African American Vernacular English: Should It Be Incorporated In Our Schools?

1. African American Vernacular English:Should It Be Incorporated In Our Schools? Kathia Darius Education 702.22 Professor O’Connor Fall 2009

2. Table of Contents Abstract (not needed) Introduction Statement of Problem Review of Related Literature Statement of Hypothesis Methods Participants (draft) Instruments (draft) Experimental Design (not needed) Procedure (not needed) Results (not needed) Discussion (not needed) Implications (not needed) References Appendices

3. Statement of the Problem Many black children speak a nonstandard variety of English; and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) has been widespread and evident in their respective communities. In schools, teachers should recognize that AAVE exists, but should also find the best way to integrate Standard English (SE) to speakers of AAVE, while at the same time respecting their native dialects.

4. Review of Literature Basic research, evaluation of intervention programs, and common sense observations continue to show that Black children do not do well in school. In Oakland, California, as in other cities in the U.S., they still lag behind White and other minority children. In 1995-1996 their GPA was 1.8, the lowest of all major ethnic groups. A task force established by Oakland Unified School District in 1996, concluded that differences between Black children's home English and the school standard English were at the heart of the problem. • (Ogbu, J. 1999)

5. Review of Literature Negro dialect shares many features with other kinds of English, but that "Its distinctiveness . . . lies in the fact that it has a number of pronunciations and grammatical features which are not shared by other dialects”. • (Shores, D. 1974) AAE has evolved during its history of colonial existence into a language strongly determined by English super-structures while maintaining much in every aspect of African home language and styles of discourse. It is this mixing of the European with the African that has made AAE and its speakers bear a cultural and lingual identification different from that of other varieties of American English. It is also the colonial existence of AAE speakers that has contributed to cultural and lingual difference. And so when African Americans are heard speaking differently from White Americans, the acknowledgment of their language type to association with poor, uneducated Whites, at its best, or to a primitive ungrammatical concoction of strange sounds and weak lexical imitations, at its worst, keeps it within the control of American colonialist power while ignoring the integrity of origins outside of American or European. • (Zeigler & Osinubi 2002)

6. Review of Literature In general, we can say that the BEV has no agreement between subject and verb. There is one exception: some agreement is clearly registered in the finite forms of be.Just as Standard English cannot contract in final position, so BEV cannot delete the following ungrammatical sentences: SE BEV • He’s as nice as he says he is. He’s as nice as he says he. • How beautiful you are. How beautiful you. (Kochman, T.1975) An important object of recent sociolinguistic research has been an American dialect spoken primarily by adolescents in the black speech communities in Northern urban areas. This dialect is presently called "black English. Sociolinguistic such as Labov, Dillard, Shuy, Wolfram, have presented convincing evidence that black English is widespread throughout the urban North and that it varies little in its segmental characteristics whether it occurs in New York City, Detroit, Washington, Los Angeles, or other urban areas. Such research has presented convincing evidence that black English is a systematic dialect with its own rules of semantics, syntax, and segmental phonology-a dialect having possible roots in West African languages. (Labov, 1968, Dillard, 1972, Shuy,Wolfram, &Riley, 1967)

7. Review of Literature • Pros • Black people who use a form of Black dialect do not use all of the Black dialectal features at all times. Use of these features may vary from sentence to sentence. • Black English dialect is a legitimate linguistic system with rules. • Students will enjoy hearing, saying and translating various dialects into their own or into Standard English dialect while at the same time learning that there are many English dialects. • Cons • It still is quite common to think in terms of a standard language and one or more non-standard dialects. 'Language' seems to stand here for good, acceptable and 'dialect' for bad, sloppy and lazy. • The widespread lack of awareness among Ebonics speakers of the existence and systematical use of Ebonics and its separateness from standard English. • The widespread lack of awareness among teachers of the existence and systematical use of Ebonics and its separateness from standard English.

8. Statement of the Hypothesis • HR1-20 students in school X, in Brooklyn, New York will demonstrate an impressive transformation, after the intervention. Students will acquire that African American Vernacular English (AAVE) consist of features of a grammatically distinct form of English. There will be a decrease in the usage of AAVE, after the students who speak AAVE are taught Standard English (SE) by showing them how to decode terms from AAVE to SE.

9. Methods • Participants • The participants consist of 20 students. They range from the ages of 6-8 years old. They include 12 boys and 8 girls. The cultural classification are as follows: • 3 Hispanics • 2 Latinos • 15 African Americans

10. Instruments • Survey (Informal Assessment) • Consent form

11. References • Alexander, F.C. (1980) Black English Dialect and the Classroom Teacher. The Reading Teacher, 33 (5), 571-577. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Billings, C. A., (2005) Beyond the Ebonics Debate: Attitudes about Black and Standard American English. Journal of Black Studies, 36 (1), 68-81. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Black English (1975) Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No.14, A Bibliography of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 481-529. Retrieved on November 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Black English and Other Dialects: Sociolinguistic Implications for Reading Instruction Author(s): John G. Barnitz Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 33, No. 7 (Apr., 1980), pp. 779-786. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Cunningham, P (1976-1977). Teachers’ Correction Responses to Black-Dialect Miscues Which Are Non-Meaning-Changing. Reading Research Quarterly, 12 (4) 637-653.Retrieved October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database.

12. References • Jacobson, R. (1972) The Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages and/or Dialects: An Oversimplification. TESOL Quarterly, 4 (3) 241-253. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Kochman, T (1975) Review: Grammar and Discourse in Vernacular Black English. Foundations of language, 13 (1) 95-118. Retrieved December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Labov, W (1982) Objectivity and Commitment in Linguistic Science: The Case of the Black English Trial in Ann Arbor. Language in Society, 11(2) 165-201. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Labov, W. (1973) The Linguistic Consequences of Being a Lame Author. Language in Society, 2 (1) 81-115. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Morgan, M (1994). Theories and politics in African American English. Annual Review of Anthropology, vol.23 325-345. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database.

13. References • Myhill, J (1988) The Rise of BE As an Aspect Marker in Black English Vernacular. American Speech, 63 (4) 304-325. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Ogbu U.J; (1999) Beyond Language: Ebonics, Proper English, and Identity in a Black-American Speech Community. American Educational Research Journal, 36 (2) 147-184. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Palacas, L.A; (2001) Liberating American Ebonics from Euro-English. College English, 63 (3) 326-352. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Rickford, R.J (1997) Unequal Partnership: Sociolinguistics and the African American Speech Community. Language in Society, 26 (2) 161-197. Retrieved on November 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Shores, L.D; (1974) Black English and Black Attitudes. South Atlantic Bulletin, 39 (4) 104-112. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database.

14. References • Shuy W. R (1973) The Study of Vernacular Black English as a Factor in Educational Change. Research in the Teaching of English, 7 (3) 297-311. Retrieved on November 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Siegal, J (1999) Stigmatized and Standardized Varieties in the Classroom. Interference or Separation? TESOL Quarterly, 33 (4) 701-728. Retrieved on October 1,2009, from JSTOR database. • Smith, B.R; (1974) Research Perspectives on American Black English: A Brief Historical Sketch. American Speech, 49 (1/2) 24-39. Retrieved on October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Speicher, L.B.; Bielanski, R.J (2000) Critical Thoughts on Teaching Standard English. Curriculum Inquiry, 30 (2) 147-169. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • ) Speicher L. B; McMahon, M.S. (1992) Some African –American Perspectives on Black Vernacular. Language in Society, 21(3) 383-407. Retrieved on October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database.

15. References • Tamura, H.E. (2002). African American Vernacular English and Hawai’i Creole English: A comparison of Two School Board Controversies. The Journal of Negro Education, 71 (1/2) 17-30.Retrieved October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Tarone, E. E., (1973) Aspects of Intonation of Black English. American Speech, 48 (1/2), 29-36. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Wolfram, W; Thomas, R.E; Green, W.E (2000) The Regional Context of Earlier African American Speech: Evidence for Reconstructing the Development of AAVE. Language in Society, 29 (3) 315-355. Retrieved on October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Wright, E (1990). School English and public policy. College English, 42(4) 327-342. Retrieved October 1, 2009, from JSTOR database. • Zeigler, B.M; and Osinubi, V (2002) Theorizing the Postcoloniality of African American English. Journal of Black Studies, 32 (5) 588-609. Retrieved on December 13, 2009, from JSTOR database.

16. Appendix A Consent form: To whom it may concern: My name is Kathia Darius. I am a graduate student at Brooklyn College. Presently, I am taking Education 702.22; which is an action research course. I choose to concentrate on African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and its implementation in schools, as the topic of my research project. I would like to use the scholars from this school as part of my analysis. I am asking for your consent as the school’s principal, to permit me to use the students at your school for my study. No names (school, teachers, nor students) will be cited in this report. My research will look at the quantity of AAVE used by the students, in the classroom. After my intervention (teaching Standard English (SE) to AAVE-speaking students by showing them how to interpret phrases from AAVE to SE) I will determine if there are any modifications made to the amount of AAVE usage made among the students in the particular classroom. Thank you, Kathia Darius

17. Appendix B • Survey (Informal Assessment) The survey for this research will consist of questions to determine if the students can distinguish Standard English from African American Vernacular English. In AAVE, the uninflected form of be is used if the speaker is referring to habitual state. For example, the informal assessment will be as follows: The students will be asked to translate the following sentences that are written in AAVE format: Sam be happy He be late. Do you be tired? Translation version written in Standard English. Sam is always happy. He is always late. Are you tired?