An overview of Black dialects, with suggestions for teaching students who speak in Black dialects. (RL)

Compares linguistic and non-linguistic components of ways of speaking, being, performing, and reasoning within an urban African American secondary classroom and a midwestern African American hair salon, identifying culturally shared interactional norms that inform knowledge building across sites and analyzing how the discourse norms and structures…

Traces the history of the controversy about teaching Black children standard English. Argues that all students need to learn standard English, regardless of home environment, parental education, or racial background. (RL)

Surveyed diverse students at an urban U.S. college to investigate their opinions of Ebonics. Three dimensions of Ebonics opinions, identified through factor analysis, suggested a typology of student orientations toward Ebonics, and multiple regression analysis identified variables that predicted these orientations. Findings showed that respondents…

Lists 30 resources that provide essential background information, research findings, examples from the field, and recommendations for practice for teachers of students who speak Ebonics. (SLD)

Programs for improving the standard English writing competencies of Black dialect speakers must employ the same methods and attitudes used in teaching Whites if such programs are intended to prepare students to be linguistically competent in society. (Author/MJL)

Study conducted to determine whether Black English speakers are likely to encounter problems in reading standard English. Results indicate no relationship between the use of Black English and subjects' grade level or reading performance. (Author/JLF)

Explains some of the difficulties encountered in teaching African American adults at Martin University. States that many of the students the author taught were poorly prepared for higher education. Discusses language differences between white Americans and African Americans. Argues that IQ tests are poor measures of intelligence. Defines andragogy…

Examined African Americans college students' perceptions of audiotaped people using: Black English (BE), Standard English (SE), and appropriate or inappropriate code switching (CS). Surveys indicated that participants rated SE and appropriate CS speakers more favorably than BE and inappropriate CS speakers, and they wanted to get to know and work…

This study examined changes in the complex syntax production of 85 African American preschoolers and the role of child (gender, age, African American English) and family (home environment) factors. Age, gender, and home environment effects were found for the amount of complex language used. African American English was not related to amount of…

Asserts that speakers of Black English and their behavior evoke strong responses outside and inside their communities. Asserts that members of the black communities are rarely permitted to describe or defend their language or ways of using it. Offers the essays, comments, and class interactions of an African-American/Linguistics class on language…

Undertakes a critical language analysis of the Oakland Unified School District's 1996 resolution on Ebonics, focusing on the form, content, and function of the resolution's explicit text semantics as distinct from the public statements made about it. Discusses how the resolution frames Ebonics as a non-English-related system. (Author/SLD)

Analyzes the discourse styles, including linguistic practices, of African-American students at an urban high school. Concludes that students use Ebonics or Black English as the norm against which students evaluate other speech practices and that students construct standard English as a vernacular, a discourse to be disrespected…

Explains how teachers might go about equitably and fairly teaching standard written English when African American students in the class speak black English. Argues that black English, which has been 400 years in the making, is worthy of tolerance and respect for all its richness. (TB)

This critical analysis of the usage of Black English in the classroom suggests that a change in teacher attitudes toward Black English will increase student ability and desire to learn standard English. (DA)