When my English students leave my class at the community college, they know more about linguistics than a lot of English teachers. They know that all dialects are rule governed and inherently equal. They know that the Standard is the language of power and mastery of this dialect is very important. (They all knew that anyway!) They feel good about their native dialect. They are proud of being bi-dialectical and of being able to codeswitch. I make them repeat back to me that I am not telling them that learning standard English is not necessary or important. They know that people tend to misunderstand this. Many of my black students are thrilled to learn that what AAVE stands for. One student said, "WOW! There's a name for my dialect." Many just called it slang. I explain that term also. So far, I have only had one student who seemed upset by my lessons on dialect awareness. He had a hard time with the term "grammar rules" as it applied to spoken dialects that varied from the standard. When I replaced "grammar rules" with patterns, he was fine. By the end, I think he realized that grammar rules can exist outside of certain types of textbooks. -- Christine Reintjes Martin [log in to unmask] To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/