Chapter 16

Please note that the labels on each recording (for example, "Chicago English" or "Black English") were provided by the person who made the recording available for you to listen to. Other linguists or individuals may not agree on the description as it stands. The best example of this: you'll note that some recordings are marked "general" American, which is problematic for the same reasons the term "standard" English is problematic.

Audio Examples

Audio

Accent	Chapter	Page #	Online Example Title	URL
AAVE	16	451	International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Four (African-American female, born 1928, Chambers County, AL) International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Nine (African-American female, born 1942, Tuskeehee, AL) International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Thirteen (African-American male, age 20, Montgomery, AL) International Dialects of English Archive: Illinois Four (African-American female, age 23, theater student) International Dialects of English Archive: Kentucky Four (African-American female age 19, Paducah, KY) International Dialects of English Archive: Louisiana One A (African-American male, born 1972, New Orleans, LA) International Dialects of English Archive: Louisiana Two (African-American female, born 1985, New Orleans, LA) International Dialects of English Archive: Louisiana Three (African-American female, born 1985, New Orleans, LA) International Dialects of English Archive: Michigan Nine (African-American male, born 1984, Detroit, MI, student) International Dialects of English Archive: Mississippi Three (African-American male, sixties, Grenada, MS) International Dialects of English Archive: North Carolina Five (African-American male, 30s, Winston-Salem, NC) International Dialects of English Archive: South Carolina Four (African-American female, born 1986, Florence, SC) International Dialects of English Archive: Texas Seventeen (African-American male, raised in Texas)	http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-9 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-13 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/illinois-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/kentucky-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/Louisiana-1a  http://www.dialectsarchive.com/louisiana-2 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/louisiana-3  http://www.dialectsarchive.com/michigan-9 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/mississippi-3 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/north-carolina-5 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/south-carolina-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/texas-17
SAE	16	455	International Dialects of English Archive: General American	http://www.dialectsarchive.com/general-american

 

Discussion question

1. Listen to the samples of African American English from several areas of the United States*. What do you think about these varieties of AAVE being used in the classroom? Explain why you feel the way you do.

Videos

“Does Ebonics Belong in the Curriculum?”
The Situation with Tucker Carlson, 6/20/2011
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8628930/

This video clip provides material for the discussion of the use of AAVE in schools.

Discussion question

1. Based on the information in this video clip, compare and contrast the program in San Bernadino County, CA, with the program proposed by the Oakland School Board in 1996 that sparked the Oakland Ebonics Controversy. What are the similarities and differences in the programs? What are the similarities and differences in the arguments for and against the use of AAVE in schools that cropped up as a result of these programs?

Further Resources

Baugh, J. (2004) Ebonics and its Controversy.  In E. Finegan and J. Rickford (Eds.) Language in the USA : Themes for the 21st Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hill, J. (2001) The Racializing Function of Language Panics. In R. Dueñas González and I. Melis (Eds.) Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.

Perry, T. and Delpit, L. (1998) The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African American Children. Boston: Beacon Press.

Rickford, J. (1999) The Ebonics Controversy in My Backyard: A Sociolinguist's Experiences and Reflections, Journal of Sociolinguistics 3: 267–275.

Images

“I Has a Dream” advertisement
http://www.andyawards.com/winners_1999/images/news_dream.jpg

Links

“The Real Ebonics Debate”
Rethinking Schools
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/ebonics/ebonics_toc.shtml

“AAVE: African American Vernacular English”
The Linguist List
http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/