Examined codeswitching to negotiate power or solidarity in adults' conversational exchanges and discusses ebonics as used by African Americans in urban adult basic education programs. Findings from 12 interviews and 20 videotapes show how adult learners use language to inform and interpret themselves in the world. (SLD)

The study of language in its social context and the role of language in society has developed over the past four decades into the field called sociolinguistics. In approaching language as a social activity, sociolinguists focus on discovering the specific patterns or social rules for talk; for example, they might examine how people manage their…

Purpose: This investigation examined the comprehension of third person singular /s/ in 30 African American English (AAE)-speaking children as a subject-number agreement marker on a comprehension task. Method: A comprehension task was presented to 30 typically developing AAE-speaking children between the ages of 4 and 6. The children were randomly…

This article focuses on the particular challenges, choices, and celebrations relevant to teaching in an urban setting. The speech of African American students is described as rich and reflective of the African American oral tradition. The article also discusses the meaning, rules and the evolution of African American English.

Learning about how language works not only gives students a better grounding in English; it also provides insights into the nature of what it means to be human. Language is both universal and a key element of human diversity. In becoming schooled in linguistic aspects of diversity, students become aware of their own language choices and the…

The performance and attitudes of African-American students of foreign languages are discussed in this digest. Three major areas are reported: (1) Black English and foreign language learning, including theories of language deficiency, sociolinguistic research, phonology and syntax; (2) research on the performance of African-American students of…

Many linguists, sociologists, and educators see the nonstandard form of speech used by African-American students as a substandard, imperfect copy of Standard English (SE), marred by a number of careless and ignorant errors, rather than as something to be studied and understood in its own right. Many African-American college students continue to…

Black English should not be used in elementary classrooms in place of standard English but along with it, giving students opportunities to develop use of both equally well.

As part of the development of a battery of tests to determine proficiency in black standard and nonstandard speech, a test, consisting of 20 items involving verbal and pictorial cues, was developed and administered to 27 third graders and 32 sixth graders. Results were analyzed to determine test reliability and correlation with other test scores.…

Because the language of a multiple choice test is formal and often unfamiliar, certain linguistic features may lead a test-taker to misconstrue the test instructions, questions, or answers. When this happens, a shared understanding of meaning between tester and test-taker is not present, and the test results are invalid. Although this problem…

Following the federal court's Ann Arbor (Michigan) decision regarding the education of children who speak black English, the National Institute of Education and the Ann Arbor Public Schools cosponsored a national conference on the subject, the proceedings of which are summarized in this paper. Following an introduction, the paper provides…

If we want monority students to be able to speak out effectively for their rights, we must teach them, without destroying their own voices, to use language that cannot be labeled substandard. (JH)

Argues that, considering the widespread pluralism in dialects in the Black community, the linguists' use of the term "Black English" to describe the language of only one group of blacks seems an example of poor communication between linguists and the general public; and that linguistists cannot afford to ignore the racial plays for power in the…

Discusses the nature and history of black English, arguing that the duality of the black experience both within and without the American national experience, and the contribution of different classes and strata of the black community to that duality, appeared in the kind of English spoken on the farms and plantations and in the towns and cities.…