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)

Three linguistic theories (the creolist, the transformationalist, and the ethnolinguistic) of the origin and historical development of Ebonics in America are examined. (Author/MC)

Suggests a holistic approach to the language of Black people involving theory and research, policy and planning, and implementation and practice, the ultimate aim of which is knowledge for liberation. (DD)

Proposes the study of Gullah as a means of discovering the African roots of Black English. (AM)

Discusses how American Sign Language does and does not resemble African American Vernacular English (Ebonics). The need for metalinguistic awareness in students is highlighted. Students are urged to learn Standard English, recognize and respect other languages they use, and know the link between language, status, and power. (CR)

Describes the writing problems of a poor, black, urban student who wants to succeed in college but doesn't know how. Asserts that language use, particularly the use of Black English, plays a major role in their lack of academic success. Offers drills and strategies to help with this problem. (PRA)

Maintains that the move from theorizing difference to dealing with difference in an intercultural collaboration creates generative conflicts for educators and students. Tracks the conflicting discourses, alternative representations, and political consequences the construct "Black English" had for black and white mentors, teenage writers, and…

A video tape of a freshman composition student at the University of Arizona shows the difficulty she has faced in writing classes because of her black dialect. Her instructor points out that the student, after some of the readdings in class, recognizes that she has learned code switching on her own to survive in the educational system; this…

This paper is a critical review of Eleanor Orr's theory that African American students have difficulty with mathematical and scientific concepts because they speak Black English. Orr's data are criticized on many levels. For instance, her facts are derived from a limited subject pool and she has failed to take into account other possible reasons…

Standard English has not disappeared, but merely changed as it "must" change when the dominant class setting the standard undergoes change. If teachers are to succeed in persuading pupils to change their language, they must know and teach the standard as it is, not as it used to be, while still implanting in the minds of some students…

This paper makes three arguments reaffirming the overwhelming complexities inherent in any real history of the language of blacks in North America. (1) Although the study of black English, however that term may be defined, is desirable in itself and was profitable for white linguists during the 1960s and early 1970s, it did not and never will do…

Catherine Prendergast challenges compositionists to investigate how privileging whiteness perpetuates racism in the classroom. In response to Prendergast's challenge, this paper examines the "white ground" of composition classes by complying with Ian Marshall and Wendy Ryan's suggestion to "look closely at how the "politics of…

Official recognition of Black English as a dialect has implications for all public school systems that have minority enrollments. The Ann Arbor decision points to changes that should be made in teacher and institutional attitudes and in the administration and interpretation of standardized tests. (SK)

Discusses the controversy that was highlighted in the 1979 court case in Ann Arbor Michigan over the role of Black English in students' achievement ; and notes the effects of poverty and motivation on achievement. (MKM)

Describes political definitions and forms of power in the modern era. Discusses echoes lingering from the collision between early American linguistics and the late black rebellion against racism. Argues that, despite hopes of attaining democracy through language, there remains little democracy in language. (HB)