Black English and Education

Since researchers started to study Black English, different opinions and perceptions have been developed. There are the ones who believe that Black English is just “slang”, it is “talk of garbage”; on the other hand, many specialists have been studying Black English and they have a main difficulty in their definition of it: Is Black English an autonomous language, which can be considered separated from the Standard form, or is it a variety of English? This difficulty has accompanied educators of Black English speakers. How can it be possible to teach Standard English to them if they speak in a considerable different way?

In 1996, a proposal by a California school board to recognize Black English as a second language provoked many debates. Some people, as Rev. Jesse Jackson, contested the idea, arguing that while schools tried to consider Black English as an important level of education, students were not being prepared and qualified for jobs. In contrast, Lucella Harrison, president of the Oakland School Board, affirmed that they had to acknowledge that all of their students did not come to them speaking Standard English.

The fact is that educators had to look at Black English in a different way because black students were not having a good improvement in the English classes. The reason for that is not because they speak a “lazy language”, it is because they speak a different “variety” with strong historical characteristics. Many linguists considered the proposal of the Oakland school an insult, because black children are not bilingual, but they are bi-dialectal. The first site shows an opinion in favor with the Oakland School decision and the second one shows a completely opposite view of the problem: it is against the bilingual education:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3935/is_2000107/ai_n8955638/pg_7

www.fumento.com/ebonics.html

At the same time, this variety was constructed among people who were isolated from the white society; it has its own identity, which is not completely shared by Americans. Blacks constructed their sense of nation in America; they are not from a different country, as Spanish people are. They constructed an identity in America even if they were excluded by America society. Is it black an original “nation” inserted in a place where they are excluded? How can a nation exist in a place where all the laws and rules made their people believe that they were not part of it?

http://www.alondraoubre.com

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlWOu9FHm-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE2P8bd0Jc4

Websites:

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html

 

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/3638/blacktalk.html

 

http://www.uta.fi/~reetta.lehtonen/8mile.pdf

http://www.llp.armstrong.edu/watermarks/981011st.html

http://tlc.ousd.k12.ca.us/~acody/AC_on_Black_English.html