Teachers of culturally different students should not ridicule or verbally abuse their students, but should try to show them how the characteristics of formal English differ from urban Black English. They must be able to explain the appropriateness of standard English usage in certain situations, while they still maintain respect for the students' language. Urban black speech is not a separate dialect from standard English but it is a functional variety of American English, characterized by ellipsis, jargon, and slang. This is demonstrated in the way educated blacks shift from Black English to formal English. Joos, the author of "Five Clocks," defines urban black speech as the sixth clock, a variety of English between casual and intimate speech with the features of both. He believes that everyone uses several functional varieties of English. Some of these styles are: the frozen style, which is used for print in legal documents or in briefs before the Supreme Court; the formal style, which is usually used in lectures and is the style most English composition teachers require; the casual style, which is the speech used with friends and acquaintances; and the intimate style, which is used in intimate conversation with close friends or lovers. (SW)