Language instruction in secondary education is dominated by standard language ideology--a view of language that sanctions one ("standard") variety at the expense of other ("nonstandard") ones. While it is clear that students need access to privileged rhetorical forms, it is similarly clear that most current pedagogies do not facilitate such access…

Discusses language usage among blacks and whites, pointing to some current theories. (RB)

The author argues that Black English should not be accepted as standard in the classroom. (MM)

Paper presented at 3rd Annual TESOL Convention, Chicago, Illinois, March 5-8, 1969.

This essay examines a Brooklyn College-based research collective that placed African American languages and cultures at the center of the composition curriculum. Recovering such pedagogies challenges the perception of the CCCC's 1974 "Students' Right to Their Own Language" resolution as a progressive theory divorced from the everyday…

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…

Earlier sociolinguistic studies distinguish between Standard English and Black English with respect to indirect question formation. Standard English typically does not invert the tense-marker "do" in the imbedded question ("Ask John if he played basketball today") while Black English does ("Ask John did he play basketball today"). In fact, the…

This study was conducted to discover how Nonstandard Negro English speaking kindergarten children form verb phrases and what they mean by the various forms. It was limited to the main verb in each sentence; passive forms and imbedded sentences were excluded. Only verb phrases from four types of sentences were analyzed: declarative, negative,…

Presents four essays disagreeing with Farrell's efforts to refute Arthur R. Jensen's genetic explanation of Blacks' lower scores on IQ tests. Presents Farrell's response to these essays. (HTH)

The author discusses the linguistic dispute of Black English, or Black Idiom vs. Standard English and argues for the acceptance of the former. (MM)

The underlying thesis of this article is that Nonstandard Negro English differs in its deep structure from Standard English. (Author/FWB)

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)

Opposes the legislation of linguistic conformity by penalizing minority students who write in nonstandard dialect. (DD)

The transcript of and guide to a two-cassette course designed to assist speakers of Black English in erasure of their accents includes an introduction on Black and Standard English usage, an explanation of the system used in this course, the pronunciation symbols used, and an explanation of how to change or eliminate trouble spots. The course is…