It is not necessary for Black children to lose their ethnic, linguistic, and cultural behavior patterns when learning standard English, if they are taught by enlightened teachers using innovative educational programs. (Author/MC)

Discusses an interview in which Marcyliena Morgan elaborates on the necessity to analyze both microlinguistic issues of grammar and phonology as well as larger issues of discourse pragmatics and language ideology. The interview touches on African American poetry, the convergence of African American and standard English, and oases and indirectness.…

Identifies negative factors in the current culture and surroundings of Black males from childhood through adolescence, and their consequences in adulthood. Recommends programs that instill confidence and spur achievement through awareness of positive aspects of African American history and culture. (DM)

Using a method of topical rhetorical analysis, inspired by K. Burke, to discuss the Ebonics debate, this article demonstrates that conversations about education, particularly writing instruction, have adopted a market rhetoric that limits teachers' agency. However, reappropriation of this market rhetoric can help writing teachers to imagine and…

Analysis of a few short segments of discourse, produced by two Afro-American college students in a freshman composition class, demonstrates one obvious way in which young people in the United States are severely threatened by the educational system. "Darrell" tells the story of how he was suspended from high school by a respected teacher…

As an extension of African-Americans' rich language and musical heritage and abilities, rap music has some value in the educational setting. Rap music started as a dance fad beginning in the mid-1970s among Blacks and Hispanics in New York's outer boroughs. It is another generational brand of Black language and musical usage and an extension of…

The English curriculum needs to provide and structure learning experiences that enable students to speak, write, and read their culture into the curriculum and at the same time enable teachers to learn their way into the students' cultures. For students who do not or have not yet acquired nonverbal patterns of the mainstream, the communication and…

Those who teach language arts to black children have many opportunities and face many challenges as they work to help Afro-American children learn standard English. Among the opportunities are: (1) to help black students retain the ways of using language that are unique to their culture, while at the same time helping them to acquire the language…

This Powerpoint presentation argues that the problems encountered in implementing African-centered curriculum into the university composition classroom attest to the need for African centered education in kindergarten through university level educational institutions. The solution of the problem of African American students' disproportionate…

In this paper, the author/educator recalls a 1972 article that reviewed 11 books about the English to minorities. Over the years, teaching issues have been debated--one commonly discussed topic of the '90s being Ebonics. The author asserts that the public at large pays no attention to most academic writing. Exploitation of graduate students as…

Although research and the court have established the viability of Black English as a communication system, scholars and educators have not rallied for institutional support of its use and acceptance in society. A rational language policy must be developed that recognizes the legitimacy of all languages and dialects in America.(Author/MJL)

The author examines the precedent set in the King v Ann Arbor case as a tool to reform the miseducation of Black children. She also details some linguistic and sociocultural aspects of the controversy over whether Black English is a language or a dialect. (SK)

In a case concerning a Michigan public school and several students who spoke Black English, the court concluded that the school board had not taken appropriate action to overcome the language barrier which impeded the Black students' equal participation in the instructional program. (JN)

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 rhetoric of black writers and speakers asserts that (1) attitudes and practices toward black language are politically based to keep blacks subordinate to the dominant culture, and (2) African American scholars have a right to determine the meaning and implications of black language. Black rhetors contend that even those blacks who speak…