DW4a - Topic Proposal

Main Thesis/Argument: Teachers need to learn and effectively teach African American Vernacular English in the classroom. It is the responsibility of teachers to facilitate an environment where all students can learn. Schools need to provide teachers with the tools to enlighten students about oral language and writing. If teachers could effectively and efficiently relate to all of their students and teach them accordingly, many problems regarding the learning of language would be solved. It has been stated by many sociolinguists that if students were allowed to use their home language in school, they could better acquire Standard English easier.

Why I chose this theme: I think it is imperative that teachers help their student learn in the best manner possible. If teachers cannot overcome their lack of knowledge about languages other than Standard English, then students cannot effectively learn. It is important that students learn Standard English because it is considered the language of wider communication and is used throughout most of the world. Nevertheless, it is also important to let them learn SE in a way that is best suitable for each student. If this means that one needs to use their home language in order to attain SE, then that is the way in which the teacher should approach teaching the student.

Evidence I will draw upon: I have found three sources that displayed the importance of teaching students home language in order to facilitate further learning. In the journal publishing, “Five Easy Pieces: Steps toward Integrating AAVE into the Classroom” by Jessica Whitney, she offers five steps for teachers to learn, incorporate, and teach AAVE in schools. The steps that Whitney formulates will support my argument because she makes an argument that I support. Whitney stresses the importance of integrating student’s home language into schools. By providing evidence as to why it should be incorporated into schools and various ways to do this, she lets the audience realize the importance and ramifications that this could provide. In a policy from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) entitled Bilingual Education, the board addresses the evolution of the incorporation of AAVE in schools. It also offers programs and solutions that would help students learn Standard English, while still being able to use their home language. In the final source I found in The Journal of Negro Education entitled Ebonics and Educational Policy: Some Issues for the Next Millennium by Orlando L. Taylor, He highlighted the history of AAVE and then discussed the issues that it encountered when it was first presented in schools.

Sources
“Bilingual Education”. National Association of State Boards of education. 6.12 (1998).
(I don’t know how to cite the above source)

Taylor, Orlando L. “Ebonics and Educational Policy: Some Issues for the Next Milennium”. The Journal of Negro Education 67.1 (1998):35-42.

Whitney, Jessica. “Five Easy Pieces: Steps toward Integrating AAVE into the Classroom”. The English Journal 94.5 (2005): 64-69.

DW3b

Ideas regarding whether African American Vernacular English should be considered a language or a dialect has been a topic for much debate for over fifty years. In the article Liberating American Ebonics from Euro-English by Arthur Palacas, Palacas raises the questions, “is American Ebonics a different language from English, is it a dialect of English, how does American Ebonics relate to the larger Ebonics picture?” In an attempt to answer these pressing questions, Palacas focuses on the grammatical patterns of Ebonics.
It is with Palacas’ numerous citations and references of linguists that he begins to formulate his argument that Standard English and Ebonics are drastically different languages. He reinforces the ideas previously stated by John Baugh, Guy Bailey, J.L. Dillard, Ralph Fasold, Salikoko Mufwene, John Rickford, Arthur Spears, William Stewart, Donald Winford, Walt Wolfram, and Geneva Smitherman, when he defines Ebonics as, “a rational, rule-governed linguistic system just like any other language or language variety and, therefore, deserving of the respect due any language or language variety; it is not just bad, broken, careless, or lazy English, not is it a degrading reflection of an untrained or even inferior intelligence.”
While many continue to regard Ebonics and Standard English as similar, Palacas dismisses this, saying that,
the emphasis on similarity and relationship…devaluates the difference and sends a message that eases the burden of teacher training when the actual need is for teachers to be trained much more in grammatical application so that they have the tools for effectively dealing with linguistic difference in the classroom as practitioners of applied linguistics.
Palacas acknowledges the responsibility of teachers to become informed. He understands the difficultly in learning a second dialect. This is the reason that Palacas, along with many linguists, make the differentiation between Standard English and Ebonics. Standard English and Ebonics should not be considered similar because they are separate systems with different rules.
Palacas does an effective job at making an argument about African American Vernacular English in his article. It can be seen through the references he uses, that thinks that Ebonics should have a place in composition studies. Palacas believes that due to the many grammatical features, including the differences in inflection, agreement, noun clauses and verb phrases, that Ebonics and Standard English are different languages.

Annotated Bibliography

Bean Janet, Maryann Cucchiara, Robert Eddy, Peter Elbow, Rhonda Grego, Rich Haswell, Patricia Irvine, Eileen Kennedy, Ellie Kutz, Al Lehner, and Paul Kei Matsuda. “Should We Invite Students to Write in Home Languages? Complicating the Yes/No Debate.” Composition Studies 31.1 (2003):25-42.

The authors pose various questions regarding writing in Standardized English or one’s mother tongue. The authors state that it is the conditions of a situation that dictate when to use a specific language style. They offer a list of variable to consider when deciding what language or dialect to use.

Billings, Andrew C. “Beyond the Ebonics Debate: Attitudes about Black and Standard American
English.” Journal of Black Studies 36.1 (2005): 68-81.

Billings makes use of a study done, to show the influences that Ebonics may have on perceptions of Black English. The author makes known both sides of the debate by providing numerous references of sociolinguists. The results of the studies highlighted the situations appropriate for the use of Black English and the attitudes toward the dialect.

Louden, Mark L. “African-Americans and Minority Language Maintenance in the United States.” The Journal of Negro History 85.4 (2000): 223-240.

Louden makes two arguments regarding the historical origin of African American Vernacular English. One theory states that AAVE originated from creolized varieties of English. The other suggestion states that AAVE began with the first African American slaves’ attempt to decipher forms of English spoken by co-territorial whites.

Palacas, Arthur L. “Liberating American Ebonics from Euro-English”. College English 63.3 (2001):326-352.

Palacas raises several questions regarding Ebonics, including whether Ebonics is a form on English or a dialect. He focuses mostly on the grammatical features of Ebonics in comparison with Standard English. Palacas cites many credited sources in his journal article in order to provide viewpoints that portray Ebonics as a language.

DW3a

A Perspective on Teaching Black Dialect Speaking Students to Write Standard English
by Juith P. Nembhard

Main ideas:
-BD students to write SE
-use prewriting, writing, and reformulation as the basis for teaching students to write SE
-do writing in class to teach students to write SE
-teacher needs to distinguish the difference between oral speech and SE so that they know there is a time a place to use it
-must expect high expectations from AA students even if their home language isn’t SE
-keep students motivated
-having private conferences with students
-the aim is to have effective communication skills so they’re not limited by home dialect
-writing assignments must be graded fairly but thoroughly
-have the same expectations and standards of everyone
-have the students focus on voice and clarity as opposed to grammar
-have students keep their culture and acknowledge it
-don’t be afraid to fail students when warranted

Supporting evidence:
-teachers are being retrained and equipped with the skills to help student become more effective writers
-showing sympathy to black students because of language limits students' capacity to perform
-"The Students' Right to Their Own Language" said that black students have the right to speak as they wish and to maintain their cultural linguistic heritage.
-bidialectalism:allows students to retain their own language and also incorporate a standard form as a second language.

This writing discusses ways in which teachers can help students become effective writers. Nembhard asserts that the most important aspects of teaching students how to write include the focus on content, clarification of expectations and requirements, and the motivation of students.
The author believes that every student should be taught to write and be responsible for writing correctly. However, Nembhard also holds the belief that one's home dialect should not being abolished when acquiring a standard form of language.

Nembhard fails to make an effective argument about AAVE's role in composition studies. Her goal is to inform readers about the techniques to become an effective writer. Although Nembhard includes a discussion of composition studies when mentioning writing in school, she fails to make a strong connection to writing and AAVE. She does not plainly state that AAVE is or is not present in composition studies. However, she does make clear that Standard English should be the preferred language in writing.

IAR-Taking Black Technology Use Seriously...

What is invention?
-research AAVE
-cite and research scholarship from sociolinguists and scholars ( Smitherman, Holmes, Powell, Rickford, Rose, etc)
-research the "underground" in African American Culture
-research how AAVE is used on the Internet

What is being invented?
-cyberspace dismisses race and culture as irrelevant
-websites serve as cultural underground for African Americans
-African Americans need to be better represented online
-there exists certain features of AAVE online

What is being arranged?
-history of AAVE to the "underground"
-"underground" to the digital divide
-digital divide to problems of access and use
-problems to online feedback
-online feedback to African American discursive feature online
-features online to rhetoric

What is arrangement?
-discussion to discussion
-example to example
-example to application

What is being revised?
-technology needs to allow all people equal representation online
-African Americans should have the right to their own language
-the digital divide still exists
-the "underground" still exists

What is revision?
-examples of AAVE on websites (Black Planet)
-cites well-known sociolinguists
-resources to support arguments

DW2b

Race is a topic of wide debate around the globe. It can be viewed and discussed in many different venues, one of which is the Internet. The Internet provides a place where people can learn new ideas and communicate with one another. However, recently many debate that it may be more difficult for some to do so than others. One author in particular, Adam Banks makes know his opinion regarding the dismissal of "race and culture as irrelevant online". In his publication, Taking Back Technology Use Seriously: African American Discursive Traditions in the Digital Underground, Banks states:

Because these spaces (Internet sites) exist outside of the official gaze of
schools, workplaces, and governments, those who become part of them truly do
have the right to their own language. The presence of such spaces
online would mean three things: first, it would be a repudiation of much
early cyberspace theory that insisted race is and should be irrelevant
online, that it would be made irrelevant by the fluidity inherent in
online subjectivities. Second, it would confirm the importance of
discursive and rhetorical features that Smitherman links to African oral
traditions for the written discourse of African Americans...Third, it would
show Black people taking ownership of digital spaces and technologies and
point to the importance of taking Black users into account in technology user
studies.

Banks stresses the importance of incorporating all races and languages, most specifically AAVE, into the Internet. It is importance to include variety on the internet becuase it allows people to freely express themselves how they see fit. Just as it was promised that the Internet would be racially unbiased, so it should be. This idea can be directly exhibited through an exerpt from the pop culture website, www.blakarazzi.com:

So I got a text message from my friend this morning at 5:00 am. She is married to a cop she said her husband got a domestic violence call Chris brown beating up on Rhianna I text her back yeah right. She said Rhianna said it was not the first time….I don’t buy it…who knows..Cops are standing outside of the Staples center waiting to arrest Brown in case he arrives, but both Brown and Rihanna cancelled their appearances at the GRAMMY's.Shitz about to go DOWN!!!

The exerpt above shows style shifting and specfic phonological features of AAVE present on the website. The passage above supports Bank's idea that language is important of the internet. Banks believed that it is important for people to "have the right to their own language" and in turn use it.

DW2a

The website I analyzed was http://www.blakarazzi.com/. The site included news about politics, sports, music, television, and many other topics. One article, entitled Chris and Rhianna: So Happy Together?, discussed the rumor that Chris Brown "wooped up on Rhianna".

"So I got a text message from my friend this morning at 5:00 am. She is married to a cop she said her husband got a domestic violence call Chris brown beating up on Rhianna I text her back yeah right. She said Rhianna said it was not the first time….I don’t buy it…who knows..
Cops are standing outside of the Staples center waiting to arrest Brown in case he arrives, but both Brown and Rihanna cancelled their appearances at the GRAMMY's.
Shitz about to go DOWN!!!"

The article, written by Kat Nelson, gives two examples of AAVE. The first example in the article is the presence of code switching or style switching. Nelson begins the article with an actual conversation then she states what actually happened. Nelson also uses slang in the article when she says, "shitz about to go down".