African-American Vernacular English and social context

On December 18, 1996, the Oakland, California school board passed a controversial resolution recognizing the legitimacy of "Ebonics" — i.e. what mainstream linguists more often term African American Vernacular English — as a language. The resolution set off a maelstrom of media criticism and ignited a hotly discussed national debate.

Popular interpretations of the resolution

Popular interpretations of the controversial issues in the resolution include: the idea that "Ebonics" (African American Vernacular English) is a separate language; that Ebonics is an African language; that African Americans are biologically predisposed toward a particular language through heredity; that speakers of Ebonics should qualify for federally-funded programs traditionally restricted to bilingual populations; and that students would be taught in Ebonics. The Rev. Jesse Jackson condemned the resolution, saying "I understand the attempt to reach out to these children, but this is an unacceptable surrender, border-lining on disgrace." His comments were seconded by former Secretary of Education William Bennett, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, and senator Joe Lieberman.

Misunderstandings addressed in the amended resolution

The wording of the original resolution caused a great deal of misunderstanding, which fueled the controversy. On January 15, Oakland's school board passed an amended resolution. The original resolution used the phrase "genetically based" which was popularly misunderstood to mean that African Americans have a biological predisposition to a particular language, while in fact it was referring to genetic in the linguistic sense. This phrase was removed in the amended resolution and replaced with wording that states African American language systems "have origins in West and Niger-Congo languages and are not merely dialects of English."

Linguists respond to the resolution

Several groups of linguists and associated organizations issued statements in support of recognizing the legitimacy of African American Vernacular English as a language system.

“The systematic and expressive nature of the grammar and pronunciation patterns of the African American vernacular has been established by numerous scientific studies over the past thirty years. Characterizations of Ebonics as "slang," "mutant," "lazy," "defective," "ungrammatical," or "broken English" are incorrect and demeaning” “There is evidence from Sweden, the US, and other countries that speakers of other varieties can be aided in their learning of the standard variety by pedagogical approaches which recognize the legitimacy of the other varieties of a language. From this perspective, the Oakland School Board's decision to recognize the vernacular of African American students in teaching them Standard English is linguistically and pedagogically sound”
-the Linguistic Society of America

“Research and experience have shown that children learn best if teachers respect the home language and use it as a bridge in teaching the language of the school and wider society.”
-from Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Walt Wolfram, a linguist at North Carolina State University, wrote that this controversy exposed:

1. the intensity of people’s beliefs and opinions about language and language diversity,
2. the persistent and widespread level of public misinformation about the issues of language variation and education
3. the need for informed knowledge about language diversity and its role in education and in public life.

References

• Original Oakland Resolution on Ebonics.
• Amended Resolution.
• Applebome, Peter. "School District Elevates Status of Black English." New York Times. Dec 20, 1996. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Pg A18.
• Golden, Tim. "Oakland Scratches plan to teach black English." New York Times. Jan 14, 1997. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Pg A10.
• Labov, William. Some Sources of Reading Problems. Language in the Inner City, Philadelphia: Univ of Pennsylvania, 1972.
• Lewis, Neil A. "Black English is Not a Second Language, Jackson Says." New York Times. Dec 23, 1996. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, The New York Times. Pg. B9.
• Linguistic Society of America. Resolution on the Oakland Ebonics debate. 1 July 1997 : Adopted by LSA membership in a mail ballot.
• Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Policy Statement of the TESOL Board on African American Vernacular English. March 10, 1997.
• Weldon, Tracey L. "Reflections on the Ebonics Controversy." American Speech, Vol. 75, No. 3, Diamond Anniversary Essays. (Autumn, 2000), pp. 275-277.
• Wolfram, Walt. "Language Ideology and Dialect: Understanding the Ebonics Controversy." Journal of English Linguistics, 1998.

External links

• Center for Applied Linguistics. "Dialects: African American Vernacular English". Links to "a variety of resources related to African American Vernacular English", a lot of them hosted by the Center, many directly related to this controversy.