Provides a detailed linguistic-stylistic analysis of a seven-year-old black child's "sharing time" narrative, a narrative clearly in the oral rather than the literate style. Discusses the danger of oral style children (often minorities) appearing incoherent to the teacher and being given less (and poorer quality) instructional time and…

This paper reviews research about how speaking a dialect can influence students' writing and how writing should be taught to students who speak a dialect of English. Literature on the writing errors commonly made by speakers of Black English and other American dialects is summarized. (PP)

Debate over use of Ebonics (Black English dialect) as a language of instruction in public elementary/secondary schools is outlined, with attention given to the controversial decision of the Oakland (California) school district to adopt Ebonics to help improve student learning. The evolution and political history of Ebonics are chronicled, and…

Discusses the sociolinguistic order in the new South Africa, traces the implications of English dominance in this order, and reflects on the difficulty of assembling an accurate picture of the sociolinguistic order of a society in times of rapid social change. Particular focus is on the processes of restandardization of standard South African…

Examines the system of relative markers in early African American English as documented in the Ex-Slave Recordings. Found a higher incidence of zero marking in adverbial than in nonadverbial relatives. The lack of "wh"-relatives found, as well as this frequency of zero subject relatives, is interpreted as evidence that African American…

Focuses on the limitations of traditional standardized psychoeducational assessments for Ebonics speakers and describes alternative measures that may yield more accurate results for these students. Also highlights the implications of traditional and nontraditional assessment approaches for test developers, evaluators, educators, and students.…

Discusses historical and contemporary issues surrounding the debate about the Oakland (California) public schools proposal on the teaching of Ebonics and suggests lessons to be learned from it. Chief among these lessons is the need to identify strategies for teaching Standard English that validate the students' own language and culture. (SLD)

For many black students, the school language differs significantly from the home language, but preservice education rarely examines this issue. This article examines implications for teaching children who use two different forms of language to navigate the demands of their contrasting sociolinguistic speech communities, discussing: how teacher…

Six recommendations that instructors can employ to encourage effective classroom code-switching practices among Black English-speaking students in the basic communication course are discussed. These include reconsidering attitudes, communicating expectations, demonstrating model language behavior, affirming students' language, creating culturally…

A work-study program was designed to provide black inner-city youths with instruction and guidance in skills needed in their current jobs, especially their ability to speak standard English. The program used the technique of modeling to arouse students' motivation to adopt standard spoken English. Research has shown that the use of a model will be…

This paper is divided into two sections related to an experimental program in English for black Americans. The first section is a report describing the program. In 1969, approximately 150 black students from urban ghettos in the North and rural communities in the South were admitted to the University of Wisconsin under a special scholarship…

This article explicates the Cultural Modeling Framework for designing robust learning environments that leverage everyday knowledge of culturally diverse students to support subject-matter-specific learning. It reports a study of Cultural Modeling in the teaching of response to literature in an urban underachieving high school serving…

The problems encountered in the development of programs for desegregated schools outside of the courts as well as strategies for resolving the difficulties are discussed. The issues are presented within the context of the development of a program that addressed the needs of students who spoke Black Vernacular English in Houston. Problems cited…

Discusses an 18-month effort by Homes for Black Children and the Wayne County (Detroit) Department of Social Services to train child welfare workers concerning the extended kinship network of the African-American family; the role of African-American men in the family and child welfare; and African-American child rearing methods, language and…

Despite American schools administrators' refusal to accept the language of African-American students and their overzealousness to frame language and literacy skills in terms of an "achievement gap," African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the language of African-American imagination and reality. This article discusses the characteristics of…