On December 18, 1996, the Oakland Unified School District school board of Oakland, California, United States, passed a controversial resolution recognizing the legitimacy of Ebonics â€" what mainstream linguists more commonly term African American Vernacular English (AAVE) â€" as an African language. The resolution set off a firestorm of media criticism and ignited a national debate.
For students whose primary language was "Ebonics", the Oakland resolution mandated some instruction in this, both for "maintaining the legitimacy and richness of such language... and to facilitate their acquisition and mastery of English language skills." This also included the proposed increase of salaries of those proficient in both Ebonics and Standard English to the level of those teaching limited English proficiency (LEP) students and the use of public funding to help teachers learn AAVE themselves.
Popular response
Some interpretations of the controversial issues in the resolution include the idea that Ebonics is not a vernacular or dialect of English, that it is a separate language; a member of the African language family; that African Americans particular language and their dialects; that speakers of Ebonics should qualify for federally funded programs traditionally restricted to bilingual populations; and that students would be taught American Standard English via 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, borderlining on disgrace." His comments were seconded by former Secretary of Education William Bennett, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, and Senator Joe Lieberman. Jackson would later reverse his position, attributing his initial opposition to a misunderstanding of the school district's proposal. He said, "They're not trying to teach Black English as a standard language. They're looking for tools to teach children standard English so they might be competitive."
Amended resolution
The original resolution caused a great deal of consternation and anger, which fueled the controversy. On January 15, 1997, Oakland's school board passed an amended resolution. The original resolution used the phrase "genetically based" which was commonly understood to mean that African Americans have a biological predisposition to a particular language, while the authors of the resolution insisted that it was referring to linguistic genetics. This phrase was removed in the amended resolution and replaced with the statement that African American language systems "have origins in West and Niger-Congo languages and are not merely dialects of English."
Linguists' response
Some 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.
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.
Walt Wolfram, a linguist at North Carolina State University, wrote that this controversy exposed the intensity of people's beliefs and opinions about language and language diversity, the persistent and widespread level of public misinformation about the issues of language variation and education, and the need for informed knowledge about language diversity and its role in education and in public life.
However, in response to the amended resolution claiming that African American language systems "are not merely dialects of English," there have been some statements in opposition from linguists, since the linguistics community does primarily regard African-American Vernacular English as, indeed, a "dialect" or variety of English.
Notes
References
- Original Oakland Resolution on Ebonics.
- Amended Resolution.
- Applebome, Peter (December 20, 1996). "School District Elevates Status of Black English". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved September 19, 2010.Â
- Golden, Tim (January 14, 1997). "Oakland Scratches Plan To Teach Black English". The New York Times. p. A10. Retrieved September 19, 2010.Â
- Labov, William. "Some Sources of Reading Problems". Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1972.
- Lewis, Neil A. (December 23, 1996). "Black English is Not a Second Language, Jackson Says". The New York Times. p. B9. Retrieved September 19, 2010.Â
- Linguistic Society of America. Resolution on the Oakland Ebonics debate. 1 July 1997: Adopted by LSA membership in a mail ballot.
- Morgan, Marcyliena (1999). "US Language Planning and Policies for Social Dialect Speakers". In Davis, Kathryn Anne; Huebner, Thom. Sociopolitical perspectives on language policy and planning in the USA. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBNÂ 1-55619-735-7.Â
- 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. (Autumn 2000). "Reflections on the Ebonics Controversy". American Speech, Vol. 75, No. 3, Diamond Anniversary Essays. pp. 275â€"277.
- Wolfram, Walt (1998). "Language Ideology and Dialect: Understanding the Ebonics Controversy". Journal of English Linguistics.Â
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.
- Rich, Frank. "The Ebonic Plague". The New York Times, 8 January 1997.
