Ah, the comment box. Between the three blogs I contribute to, I always get a heap of input — sometimes heated backlash — about the stuff I post. I dish it, so of course I can take it. One post sticks out in my mind. A reader couldn’t focus on the point I was trying to make in my writing for being distracted by the way I was writing it. My language choice was stereotypical and offensive to my people, she balked.
I blog exactly how I talk in real-life conversation, much to the chagrin of that commenter and others who’ve corrected my grammar, apparently. It’s not that I don’t know the straight-laced, more formal way of expressing my thoughts — I have a degree in English (gasp!) and I’m a writer and editor by trade. But Ebonics is the way my family and plenty other black folks talk. It’s familiar and comfortable. That’s why I think it’s appropriate not only for blogging, but teaching black students.
I can almost hear the murmurs of disapproval now.
Isn’t it interesting how mainstream America likes to boast about our country being a melting pot, but everybody is forced to speak standard American English in order to be considered smart, professional, intelligent, and articulate? A quick Google search of “Ebonics and teaching” drudges up all kinds of telltale, negative reactions that accuse black linguistics of being a “dumbing down” of pure English (as if any American speaks that). Now that, dear readers, is the stereotypical, offensive part.
Ain’t nothin’ dumb or lowly about black English.
Every community has its own dialect, even dialects within dialects because certainly, Puerto Ricans speak a different brand of Spanish than Panamanians, though they’re both Latino, just like black folks from the South don’t talk exactly like the ones from New York City or Los Angeles. So why should our signature way of speaking be any more low-brow and any less viable than other groups or mainstream English, at that? Especially if using it in the context of the classroom helps students who statistically do better when information is presented in a language they’re comfortable with.
There’s no one-size-fits-all way of teaching and if some kids grasp information delivered via Ebonics more easily than they do all dressed up in prim and proper standard American English, then so be it. At this point, whatever works to close the achievement gap between black and other students is something worth giving a shot.
The only caveat: imparting lessons in Ebonics can be effective but kids still need to learn how to code switch. That is, for those who aren’t familiar or never had to do it, knowing when each way of speaking is appropriate and how to be able to volley from black English to standard American English in certain situations — job interviews, court dates, or public presentations, for example. I don’t hear enough teenagers who are able to do code switching but then again, I’m not sure if they’ve grasped the importance of mastering standard English anyway.
We live in a society that frowns on “ain’t” over “isn’t” and makes suppositions about how smart somebody is based on how eloquently they can navigate a grammatically correct sentence. That means kids learning under the familiarity of black English still need to master spelling and grammar and parallel structure a la mainstream English in order to succeed academically, sometimes socially, and more importantly, professionally.
Should kids with other language backgrounds be taught in their native dialect?
Image via woodleywonderworks/Flickr
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Comments 95
The achievement gap between black students and other students has to do with a lot of factors, but NOT with the lack of Ebonics used in the classroom. There is a huge difference between someone learning in their native language and someone using their dialect as an excuse for poor academic performance. I'm from New England. If I were to take a trip down south, I'd still be able to understand and learn about things down there, despite the "dialect barrier". The point of school (among other things) is to teach proper English spelling and pronunciation, no matter your background. The day we see any dialect--Ebonics, Valley Girl, Text, Southern Drawl, Yankee--being used in the classroom instead of standardized English is the day education dies.
I really hope you are in thearpy.
Please. As if we need any other reason to encourage people to care less about their spelling and grammar. I've seen fellow students in college unable to write a decent sentence. Most of the people I know today don't know simple things, like the difference between to and too, your and you're, their and they're. You see it everywhere. It's getting worse with schools being overcrowded and underfunded, auto-correct on cell phones and computers, and so on.
It's important to know how to write and speak properly and when it's appropriate to do so. This applies to any place, person, or language. I personally would never walk into a job interview, or do any public speaking, and use anything less than proper form.
I haven't read all the comments and I stopped reading the article after the comment about the difference between Puerto Rican Spanish and Panamanian Spanish. As a person of Panamanian descent with tons of Puerto Rican friends, I do know that there is a big difference between the two versions of Spanish. However in all of the Spanish classes I took in school, we learned Castellano, the "proper" way to speak Spanish. The form of Spanish that is spoken in Spain. They do not teach Puerto Rican Spanish as my Puerto Rican best friend learned the hard way when she flunked Spanish because she refused to learn it the correct way. My point is, why should we make it harder for the kids by teaching them the slang way to speak first and then later on correct them? The corrections are done now in my home. My child will not speak slang as long as I can help it.