A team of AAVE and AE experts collaborated in an effort to identify and evaluate how the use of phonological processing occurs in both African American and Caucasian children and determine the implications for phonological reading instructions in classrooms. The study used varying phonological constants and variables and ultimately concluded that AE students performed better than AAVE students as the instructions for the study were written in AE-related language. Educators and scholars believed that the results of this study necessitated further discussion as the impact and implications for phonological reading instruction is expected to be fair to all children (Sligh, Frances, and Connors, 2003).
Numerous advancements in education have
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been implemented increase understanding among multicultural children and their perspective languages. Specifically, principals, teachers, and prospective staff are trained in areas such as multicultural experiences, languages, relationships, and social patterns. In metropolitan areas, bridging the gap among AE and languages from a multitude of minorities becomes increasingly difficult. A recent study recounted the responses from a class of African American children as they extended their perception of AAVE and AE and how it influences education and opportunity. In the study, 23 students believed that AAVE should be spoken in class, 18 students felt that speaking both AAVE and AE was appropriate, and 10 students argued that only AE should be spoken. The results also indicated that students holding a grade of 85% or better maintained AE and strongly believed that only AE should be spoken in class. Based on the results, it is safe to say that higher achieving students viewed speaking AE as being a necessary component for success in life (Godley, p. 708) Mixed results were determined for other students.
One student stated that “as long as I know how to speak slang and proper English, I should be ok” (Godley, p. 708). However, nearly all students felt a need for speaking AE or, at least, avoiding slang in work settings (Godley, p. 708). Students’ arguments in favor is maintaining AE in work situations appeared to be navigated by the belief that AAVE is perceived as negative in mainstream society (Godley, Page 709).
There have been reviews of practices and problems in the evaluation of bilingual education. Bilingual education has been viewed based on several reasons. They are bilingual education leads to a destructed society; it causes separation and earlier immigrants from succeeding (Miranda). Bilingual education does not have the right programs to teach bilinguals.
African Americans often correlate language, experiences, and perspectives of life to identity. The history of slavery illustrates the creativity and dexterity African American utilized to suppress the adversaries against them. The use or misuse of language was used in a similar context. Throughout the years of slavery, racists did not view Africans as having a communicative pattern or practice identifiable amongst the assembly (George, 2004). The thought process for racists were that: the prevention of African American communication would guarantee that a social identity could never be formed and that rebellion or riots would never exist (George,
2004). African Language was perceived as child language; being that it was sought out to never develop into a unified, sustainable language. The assumption of child language as a determinant for African Language explicitly explains the biological assumption that African Americans are inferior to all human species (George, 2004). When African Americans were colonized among whites, white supremacy blockaded any prospects for African American affluence. Yet, African Americans appeared to possess an endless objective to “make a way out of no way” and this concept has set the tone for all African Americans throughout history. African American oral traditions and holistic culture are exemplified on Nommo, which characterizes an ontological register of culture, language, and experience. Nommo solidifies African American spirit in the form of productive action deemed necessary within such treacherous and oppressive environment (George, p. 291). Nommo identifies and validates AAVE as a staple of African American experience and quests for continual expression and freedom (George, p. 291). Traditionally, the cultural appropriateness and effectiveness of AAVE has been largely disputed. Worldly scholars challenge the aspects of admonishing historical or current forms of the African American language. At this point, while the language itself may be a social matter of acceptance or unacceptance, history dictates a proper replication of AAVE competencies and concepts (Walters, 1996) Just as African Americans migrated throughout the world at the hands of the unknown, so did a varieties of dynamic cultures, languages, and experiences. Stylistic language differences are exemplified throughout the experiences and various elements of African American lives. Customs and traditions of modern society aim to include the facets of African American culture, yet remain empirically empty of the necessary interest and acceptance required to fully implement and adopt African American ideology and principles. While numerous advances toward promoting AAVE and AE have been established to understand and incorporate multicultural differences into mainstream society, there is so much more that needs to be done. Essentially, the world needs to change. The general perception of African Americans and the legitimacy of experience, language, and culture requires attention and compassion. AAVE is still considered an uneducated and illiterate way of speaking. It is only when Americans begin to accept the experiences of all its natives, will real change occur in the area of language and African American language legitimacy.
Subsequent to examining America’s Colonial period we concluded that the phrase “whining nigger” would best describe our phenomenon. This would be the most likely phrase used to describe an outraged, outspoken Black man who was complaining about the inhumane brutality of slavery; for this was the angry Black man of the time. In contemplation of this notion we assert that one of the more familiar “whining niggers” during America’s...
Words are commonly used to separate people by the color of their skin, but they can also be used to bring people together, no matter what their skin color was. Using words improperly was a common problem in America when our parents were our age, and even way long before that. People have written countless stories about racism, it’s affect of the world, or it’s effect on the person themselves. One of the more well known poems about racism is “‘Race’ Politics”, by Luis J. Rodriguez. The story the poem is based off of took place sometime in the mid 1960’s, so this gives us an insight of what the world was like back then.
The most shameful practices of American history is the act of slavery from the whites to the African Americans. Many African Americans were born into slavery and forced to feel inferior towards their white masters. Actual human beings were treated like animals. The inhumane condition of slavery challenged African Americans to discover their individual true identity. The whites defined the slaves’ identity as nothing but servants to them. To the slaves, a symbol of hope was the chance to become literate —learning how to read and write. Frederick Douglass, an African American slave, believed that literacy was “the pathway from slavery to freedom” (945). Through literacy, slaves like Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass were able to define their identity.
Our world is full of different cultures and languages. Many of these different languages are mainly used in schools. Most of the time, none English speaking students have a hard time transitioning between English and their native language. This could be a reason why school boards have provided programs like ESL, to help students adapt and learn American standard English. Recently, one of the main languages that have been giving students problems to succeed in their education is African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Since the early colonization of North America, the British used slaves to do the hard manual work that the rich British men did not want to do. Even though the average American does not like to think of America’s past, there are many things that we teach in American history about our past events that shaped America, such as the Ku Klux Klan’s hatred towards African Americans and the use of slavery throughout the South during the 18th century. Many African Americans feel that their ancestors stumbled through their life for more than 300 years (Staple 22). This is true because they had been fighting for equality between every race from since the British and Americans started using them as slaves. African Americans would like “education that teaches [them their] true history and role in present-day society” (Haskins 116) During the Civil Rights Movement many innocent African Americans were beaten up while they were non-violently protesting. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee before a protest that was planned; and many African Americans were called the “N” word throughout their life prior to the Civil Rights Movement. The Staple Singers alluded to these events during their song by saying “[We’d] been beat up, called names, shot down, and stoned” (Staple 16). African Americans not only had to endure this type of bullying from
Bilingual teaching in American schools is it good, bad, or both? Who is right in this national debate? Both sides make some impressive arguments for their side of the issue. Even the government has mixed issues when it comes to bilingual teaching. However, the government has shown their views in their budgets and their law making. Another question comes up with the bilingual teaching is should America make English its official language? Some say there is no need for it, and yet 22 states as of 1996 declared English their official language. Looking into some of these issues may bring some insight as to what the problem may be.
Bilingualism, a very controversial topic to debate in today’s United States. People generally define bilingualism as the ability of using two languages that individuals have. However, this is not the reason why that bilingualism becomes such a debatable issue. In this case, bilingualism is defined as the government’s use of languages other than English for public services in order to support the immigrants’ lives in the United States. People who support bilingualism want the government to continue having this kind policies. They think that bilingualism helps immigrants to assimilate into the American culture and moreover, it will unify everyone who are on this land. Although bilingualism provides some kind of benefits toward immigrants, they cannot solve the problems in the deep root. Bilingualism should not be continued in the U.S. Why? It reduces the immigrants’ incentive to learn English, threatens national unity, and costs so much.
David A. Fein and Milton Millhauser have both written articles pertaining to the topic of slang. Fein and Millhauser provide two different viewpoints, and they employ information and their opinions in different ways. David A. Fein’s article, “Vulgarity by Teaching Slang in the Classroom”, makes a good argument as to why slang should be utilized in teaching, while Milton Millhauser’s article, “The Case Against Slang”, explains that slang is to be avoided in teaching, but fails to provide a good argument for his claim.
As of right now in the United States, the school system is not doing its best to promote the growth of African American students who speak Ebonics at home. Obviously something has to be done, because students from predominantly AAVE speaking areas are succeeding at a level well below students who are familiar with Standard English coming into school. The way the education system is set up, schools build upon existing skills that students already have especially in primarily white communities. Adding value to these skills promotes rapid growth causing them to excel past the AAVE speaking African American students. (Rickford, 1999) Those whom are n...
Immigration is something that has been going on for decades. People immigrating to the United States are coming with the intentions of working for a better future. These people can come from Africa, Mexico, Europe, Afghanistan, Colombia, and many other countries all over the world. Instead of kicking these immigrants out of our country, we should give them the chance to prove themselves to the Americans that they are here to do better in life. Not by any means should we let just anyone come, but those who come looking for a better life and are willing to follow the rules should be given a chance.
An ongoing battle of culture, freedom, and language occurs in America today. The battle is commonly called Bilingualism. The dictionary definition: being able to speak multiple languages. Though, when you dig deeper, you discover the hunger of differing tongues. Many people believe bilingualism should have a certain role in the public and education. One of these figures is Martin Espada who believe that bilingualism is also respecting one's culture. He believes that there should be more effort put into understanding different cultures and languages. An opposing figure to this is poet and author, Richard Rodriguez, who believes bilingualism should not be emphasized in the public and education system. Rather being able to speak one language and communicating is superior.
From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.
What makes a good person good? According to WikiHow, "We should learn to define our own morals ourselves. One of the simplest ways to do so is to love others, and treat them as you would like to be treated. Try to think of others before yourself. Even doing small things daily will greatly enrich and improve your life, and the lives of others around you." This quote shows us what we need to do in order to be what society thinks as, “good". In order to be a good person, you have to do good and moral things in your society consistently. However people might think that by doing one good thing once in a while will automatically make you a “good person”, but in reality it doesn’t.
The goal of education is to provide all students with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a diverse society. Realistically, this goal is tarnished for African American children speaking only AAVE. Dialect differences result in social restrictions, and because of this, educators must be aware and sensitive to policies regarding language and expectations (Lanehart, p. 127).
In this online blog entry, Elizabeth Landau claims that bilingualism can be very beneficial to one’s cognitive abilities. Her first sub-claim is that bilinguals retain better cognitive function as the body grows older. The grounds for this sub-claim is a reference to Ellen Bialystok’s study on Alzheimer’s patients revealing that bilinguals were several years older than monolinguals at similar phases of neurological impairment. The findings from this study support Landau’s main claim because it shows that bilinguals’ cognitive abilities regressed at a much slower pace than those of monolinguals’. The work of Bialystok is credible since she is affiliated with York University in Toronto, Ontario, and the research that Landau refers to in this blog entry are all from presentations at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Landau’s second sub-claim is that bilinguals are better at multitasking. She supports this sub-claim with Judith Kroll’s research that has found bilinguals better suited to multitasking because of their heightened attention skills. This is most likely because bilinguals are perpetually inhibiting one language in favor of the other, which gives them an enhanced ability to tune out irrelevant information. Once again, these grounds are credible and scholarly because Judith Kroll is a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, and like Bialystok, Kroll presented these findings at the annual conference. More importantly, Landau uses Bialystok’s research for support because the multitasking skills found among bilinguals correlate with improved cognitive abilities. The warrant here is that mult...