Christine Gray asks about 'Ebonics', and developments I have been
following as closely as time allows the past few days.
 
Only one school district in CA has given official recognition to one
variety of nonstandard English, the African American dialect spoken by
large numbers of pupils in inner-city schools. The district is Oakland.
They have recognized 'Ebonics' as a distinct language and want to
implement a sort of bilingual education to (a) acknowledge children's
mastery of their home dialect as a way of assuring validation and
self-esteem; (b) make teaching materials available in 'Ebonics' as a
means of making education more accessible to speakers of this variety of
English and to smooth their transition to standard English (the
spokespersons for this district that I have read insist that no 'lowering
of standards' is intended, and that all children should learn 'standard
English').
 
As usual with language issues, there has been hot reaction to this decision.
The decision itself, and most of the reaction, is based (from this
expert's informed point of view) on misinformation about language,
dialect diversity, and why children fail in school (this is also typical).
 
The particular dialect in question is not, of course, the only variety of
English that is considered 'nonstandard' -- there are literally hundreds of
these, throughout the English-speaking world.
 
I too would like to see what others on this list think of Oakland's move.
Subscribers who read my messages regularly can probably already predict what
I am thinking about it.
 
Johanna
 
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Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184  E-mail: [log in to unmask]      ~
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