This article presents the author's critique of "Students' Right to Their Own Language" (SRTOL), a resolution affirming the legitimacy of dialect from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). "Students' Right to Their Own Language" remains the official position statement of the guild of college compositionists on…

Discusses the role that Sociolinguistics should play with respect to the Ebonics debate in the United States. Argues that the fundamental perspective Sociolinguistics has taken with respect to this issue is sound, namely that Ebonics like any other linguistic variety is just as rule-governed and systematic. (Author/VWL)

Prator (1968) argued strongly for promoting a single standard of English, maintaining that schools have an obligation to teach a native standard of English. The assumption that the educational structure is a productive forum for directing language use is questioned. The report begins with a discussion of the controversy surrounding United States…

As scholars examine the successes and failures of more than 50 years of court-ordered desegregation since "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," and 25 years of language education of Black youth since "Martin Luther King Elementary School Children v. Ann Arbor School District Board," this article revisits the key…

The historical struggle of African Americans, and around Black English Vernacular in particular, suggests that African Americans can be a significant force in the struggle for minority language rights. The African-American perspective on "English Only" is explored through a historical overview and a public-opinion survey of African…

Classical African rhetoric contains five elements: a caller and a chorus validating the word; spiritual entities; the word drawn from and relevant to experience; responders; and the spiritual harmony achieved when the other elements are working together. Suggests that Black English contains structural remnants of African discourse. (CJS)