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Teacher Professional Development on AAVE Kimberlyn Peal Genius Project. Do NOW! (3 min). Focus on one image in particular. Turn and talk with the person sitting next to you about the image you focused on and your reaction to it. The Evolution of AAVE.
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Teacher Professional Development on AAVE Kimberlyn Peal Genius Project
Do NOW! (3 min) • Focus on one image in particular. • Turn and talk with the person sitting next to you about the image you focused on and your reaction to it.
The Evolution of AAVE • While most other immigrants were able to continue to speak their ancestral language in ethnic ghettos, slaves were torn from their native communities and immediately isolated from others who shared their language. • The slave traders engaged in this practice to minimize the occurrence of revolt, but the linguistic dimensions of this action continue to have consequences for many Black speakers today. • Historically, it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write, effectively denying them access to literate standard English; this unfortunate fact has also deepened the linguistic abyss between AAVE and standard English.
The Evolution of AAVE • After the Civil War many Blacks migrated from the South to urban areas of the north. • As they migrated up North, they took their Southern speech patterns with them, including all of the unique linguistic forms that had been incorporated into the grammatical structure of speech among slaves. • Unlike most white immigrants to urban centers, who eventually adopted local dialects, blacks generally remained isolated in impoverished ghettos and as a result, retained their dialect. • “This physical isolation contributed to linguistic isolation and the maintenance of African American vernacular English (AAVE).”
The Misconceptions of Speakers of AAVE • Many native speakers of standard English assume that nonstandard speakers are ignorant, lazy, and less capable intellectually. • The common stereotype is that nonstandard speakers, including many blacks, could speak "properly" if only they put forth sufficient effort. “This view, while perhaps understandable, is woefully uninformed and simplistic. It fails to recognize the unique status of AAVE or the linguistic consequences of slavery.”
The Retention of AAVE Symbolizes Racial Solidarity! • Many speakers of black English view this dialect from an entirely different perspective: They Value It! Speaking in AAVE is an affirmation of their heritage and cultural roots. • Their personal and cultural identities are closely linked to the language of their friends, family, and forebears • To many African Americans the adoption of standard English is perceived to be an abandonment of Black culture. • “Uncle Tom” “Sissies” names given to those who reject Black speech in favor of SE
Allegiance to AAVE • Many African American students are “fighting a battle to remain loyal to their native dialect while schools are advocating mastery of a standard dialect. “ • What are some ways you’ve seen this situation panned out in your own classrooms? • 2. Instead of viewing our students who speak AAVE as obstinate due to their refusal to speak SE, what are some activities and assignments that we can implement to encourage African American students to embrace their dialect? • “The very linguistic allegiance that enhances educational process for native SE speakers stands in opposition to the success of non- standard speakers.”
One Black Woman’s Perspective • You just can never forget that slavery was a bitch from the get-go. Slaves didn't get no schoolin and they ain't never really given us [African Americans] equal opportunities, so how we supposed to talk like white folks, and why would we want to? It ain't no white people really care about us, cause if they did they wouldn't try to make you turn into a white person, they'd take you like you is. But they don't do that. All my teachers in school kept tellin me, "if you don't speak proper, you won't get a job." That's bullshit! I know some Brothers that went to college--y'know, they did the "white thing," with good grades and good English, and they still have problems on the job. They done tol me about this Brother who did all the work for a white boy at his job, and then they [the Whites] lied on his ass when the boss found out and he was fired, and nobody tried to help him. How can you trust motherfuckers that do shit like that, and then they say we stupid cause we don't talk proper. Talkin proper don't feel natural to me, but that don't make me stupid--I see what's goin on, and I see what's comin down, and it ain't got nothin to do with how we talk. It's all about money, power, and politics--plain and simple! 1. It’s All About the Benjamins, Baby! Agree or Disagree?
African American English (AAE) • Although not all African American speak AAE, linguists estimate that between 80 to 90 percent of African Americans do (at least among friends). • Especially prevalent among blue collar workers and adolescents. • Not just spoken by African Americans.
IS AAE “broken” English? • John McWhorter says no … • AAE is not derived from Standard English (SE)—it evolved from the English language alongside SE. • AAE is primarily a spoken dialect, and is not “frozen on the page” the way SE is; thus, it has evolved and changed at a more rapid pace than SE. • AAE is not studied and codified in school in a manner similar to SE; thus, its rules are generally not well understood by non-speakers. • Many of the so-called primitive features of AAE, such as the omission of the verb to be in He stupid, are also found in the standard variety of languages such as Russian, Arabic, etc.
Is AAE slang? • Slang is merely vocabulary whereas AAE is “much more than the sum of its words” (Rickford and Rickford); that is, while AAE certainly contains and even embraces slang, it also has rules for : • Pronunciation • Grammar • Meaning
What’s the single most distinctive factor about AAE? • According to Smitherman, it’s the use of the verb to be …
Steady: Progressive Aspect in AAVE • Steady shares characteristics with SE’s steadily which makes it a… Camouflaged form: shared by more that one dialect of a language, however, the form maintains unique grammatical or semantic qualities in each dialect • STEADY: A predicate adverb which usually precedes the progressive verbs • i.e. “He be steady rappin” Sample Syntactic Structure NP (noun phrase) + (be) + steady + verb + ing Or NP (noun phrase) + (be) + verb + ing + steady Noun phrase must be animate and specific: “A boy, be steady rappin” is ungrammatical while “Leroi be steady rappin” is ungrammatical in AAVE
Using Steady in a Sentence AAVE Style • Jade be steady steppin’ in them Jordans. • And you know we be steady jammin’ Nikki Minaj. • Them fools steady hustlin’ everybody they see. • He steady be tellin ‘em how to run they lives. • All the homeboys be rappin’ steady.
Sentence Stems Using Steady Present Tense • He steady Verb + ing. • He be steady Verb + ing. • He steady be Verb + ing. Future Tense • He gon be steady Verb +ing. • He gon steady be Verb +ing. • He steady gon be Verb +ing. Past Tense • He was steady Verb +ing. • He steady was Verb + ing. • Write one sentence from each tense (past, present, and future) using the AAVE steady to reflect something that you do habitually. • Rewrite those sentences in SE. • What differences do you notice between the usage of the habitual be versus the usage of steady? Which grammatical structure demonstrates more intensity towards the subject matter?
Afrocentric, Eurocentric, or Creolist roots? • Afrocentric view of AAE says that AAE has an “African grammar with English words.” • Proponents: Aisha Blackshire-Belay , Clinton Crawford • Eurocentric view of AAE says that AAE shares more in common with British and American English dialects than with West African languages. • Proponents: John McWhorter, Walter Wolfram • Creolist view of AAE posits that AAE evolved from a pidgin that fused English and African languages. • Proponents: John Rickford, John Holm
Is AAE a dialect or a language? • This is somewhat of a misleading question because the distinction between dialects and languages is somewhat of a false dichotomy… • In general, the tests of mutual intelligibility is applied to distinguish between a dialect and a language; however … • Speakers of Swedish and Norwegian, which are generally regarded as separate languages, are generally able to understand each other … as are speakers of Dutch and German, Russian and Ukrainian, Malay and Indonesian, etc. • Conversely, different varieties of Chinese are considered dialects even though the speakers cannot at all understand one another.
Is AAE mutually intelligible with SE? • Depends, doesn’t it? Reflection: Based on the usage rules of the verb to be, where does the breakdown in communication occur?
Are English speakers who claim to not understand AAE speakers lying? • Depends, doesn’t it? • Intelligibility is a two way street, and it’s sometimes an asymmetrical street … • Asymmetric intelligibility is a term used by linguists on two languages that are considered mutually intelligible, but one group would find it harder to understand the other. Portuguese and Spanish have a relationship like this, as Portuguese speakers would find it easier to understand Spanish than vice versa. (Wikipedia: Mutual Intelligibility) • Reflection: Why might AAE speakers find it easier to understand SE speakers than vice versa?
Embracing Linguistic Diversity in Our Schools: How What Works Fails African American Students • What Works: Research about Teaching and Learning, 1985 • Written by former Secretary of Education, William J. Bennett • Comments on the ideal Dynamics of the Home, Classroom, and School- A Guide Book to Educational Success Focused on these 3 Aspects of the Educational System • Strived for homogenized educational policies • Failed to address policies that would positively affect the heterogeneous population of America’s urban schools. • His attempts with this book were both futile and misleading considering the diverse and continuously changing society in which we live.
The Impact of What Works • Baugh argues that the impact will be minimal on the educational lives of less fortunate students unless the realities of poverty, racism, and unequal economic investments in education are recognized
Biased Assumptions • Home: 1. “Parents are their children’s first and most influential teacher” Misleading: In the African American community parents are not always responsible for the academic oversight of their children 2. “The best way for parents to help their children become better readers is to read to them…Children benefit most from reading aloud” Misleading: Bennett forgets to address the low literacy rates that are sometimes present among individual from lower economic classes, consequently reading is avoided.
The Effects of Biased Assumptions • What other biased assumptions do we make in regards to the education and lifestyle of African American students? • How have these assumptions hindered our ability to address the educational disparities that exist?
Biased Assumptions • Classroom “Children get a better start in reading if they are taught phonics. Learning phonics helps them to understand the relationship between letters and sounds and to ‘break the code’ that link words they hear with words they see in print.” Biased Fallacy: Those who learn a nonstandard dialect of English begin with different phonological inventory as compared to their counterparts who learn SE as their native dialect. i.e. Pen, Pin, Tin, & Ten the vocalic phonemes are merged in nonstandard Black dialect
Classroom Linguistic Demographics 1. Native speakers of SE = X% of students 2. Native speakers of nonSE= Y% of students 3. Students for whom English is not native = Z% of student • If a school population or the population within a given classroom is such that: 1. X>(Y + Z) then academic success may be considered highly probable for most students 2. In contrast, if Z > (X + Y) or (Z + Y) > X then students have greater academic difficulty.
Biased Assumptions School • “The most important characteristics of effective schools are strong instructional leadership, a safe and orderly climate, school wide emphasis on basic skills, high teacher expectations for student achievement, and continuous assessment of pupil progress” Biased Fallacy: School are subject to numerous factors that are beyond the locus of control for principals, other administrators, and teachers (enrollment size, the culture outside of the school…etc)
