Those with linguistic interest should have some interesting perspectives on this issue. I once heard a black linguist on a talkshow say he resented ebonics since the phonetic characteristics are traced not to African origins, but ignorant white sailors from whom the slaves in America learned english. I don’t know if that’s true (or even proveable), but nonetheless interesting.
I love idiom and colloquial speech of any kind. I’m always amused by it, the problem I have is when people take it too serious and think that because of its existence that there is no such thing as actual correct English.
In a few decades no highschool graduate will be capable of expressing a complex thought. It is a cultural trend. So, let’s at least assign some politically correct and ethnically sensitive objective to this process.
Of course, the idea that there ain’t no such a thing as corekt English is in perfect harmony with postmodernist ideology. It still reigns supreme, although I am very interested in knowing what might come after it.
problem I have is when people take it too serious and think that because of its existence that there is no such thing as actual correct English.
I remember reading an amusing anecdote in “Language in thought and action” by Hayakawa. I can’t remember the correct details but this lady tried to correct his English and then her ultimate proof of her linguistic argument was that she was British. Haha.
From the article it simply appears that they’re going to take certain features of Black English into consideration in teaching: “a dialect of American English spoken by many blacks, was recognized as a separate language by the Oakland, Calif., school board in 1996.”
The point of Spanish bilingual education is not to prevent learning English, but to make sure other learning takes place while English is acquired. Since Black English does do things differently, especially with verb aspect, and I believe prepositions, it makes sense to understand and accomodate those differences at an early stage in education, as a transitional tool. If nothing else it’ll make it easier to explain standard academic English using systematic comparisons.
I’m not against recognizing colloquial use of English in schools and using what is learned to teach proper (er, better) English. What I am against is the recognition of an improper English (which in all probablility stems from an abuse of the language and not functions of some African language) as another language full of dignity. For that matter, we should rubberstamp Arkansas dialect, Yankee dialect, Texan, and who knows what to do with Cajun. If they want to take note of the peculiarities while teaching English fine, but don’t trivialize English by setting these up as respectable speech which the rest of the world must be able to understand.
It is not an abuse of language. Quite regardless of its origins, it is a dialect of English. If it were simply abuse we’d expect chaos. Black English has a quite regular grammar, just one not exactly the same as standard academic English.
but don’t trivialize English by setting these up as respectable speech which the rest of the world must be able to understand.
Who has suggested this? Recognizing Black English’s peculiarities with respect to standard English for the purposes of teaching is nothing like promulgating it as required knowledge (except of course to English teachers).
How does developing better tools to teach standard English diminish it?
i am sorry, but…WTF? what is the correct language? hey, we are not in the ancient times, when only plato´s greek and cicero´s latin was considered “correct”.
Whereas Cicero’s Latin has certainly been considered a model, I am not so sure about rimon-jad’s statement about Plato’s Greek. Was he really the only model? As we know, he spoke and wrote a particular dialect of Greek - actually, I am not even sure which one Perhaps the Greeks had several models? Homer, Plato καὶ τὰ λοιπά?
Does Ebonics come from ebony? That would be too gaylord. The -ics suffix doesn’t help, either; whoever came up with that name wasn’t a textkitten, I can tell you that. What’s next, calling Spanglish ‘Macaronic-Copperonics’?
I’m all for educating children (not that that’s what they do at school) without making them feel like they are to blame or shame for how they speak, but telling them that they speak a foreign language (o là là!) is absurd.
And why would a Brother want to sound like a narcissistic, asocial, aggressive white cold fish, anyway?
Perhaps the Greeks had several models? Homer, Plato καὶ τὰ λοιπά?