African American, Creole, and Other Vernacular Englishes in Education

A Bibliographic Resource

John R. Rickford, Julie Sweetland, Angela E. Rickford, Thomas Grano

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136831041
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

More than 50 years of scholarly attention to the intersection of language and education have resulted in a rich body of literature on the role of vernacular language varieties in the classroom. This field of work can be bewildering in its size and variety, drawing as it does on the diverse methods, theories, and research paradigms of fields such as sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, psychology, and education. Compiling most of the publications from the past half century that deal with this critical topic, this volume includes more than 1600 references (books, articles in journals or books, and web-accessible dissertations and other works) on education in relation to African American Vernacular English [AAVE], English-based pidgins and creoles, Latina/o English, Native American English, and other English vernaculars such as Appalachian English in the United States and Aboriginal English in Australia), with accompanying abstracts for approximately a third of them. This comprehensive bibliography provides a tool useful for those interested in the complex issue of how knowledge about language variation can be used to more effectively teach students who speak a nonstandard or stigmatized language variety.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aarons, Alfred, Barbara Gordon & William Stewart (eds.) 1969. The Florida FL Reporter Special Anthology Issue: Linguistic-Cultural Differences and American Education.

1 3 4 5 6 B C E F N R S

Abrahams, Roger D. & Geneva Gay. 1975. Talking Black in the Classroom. In Black English: Its Background and Its Usage, ed. by P. Stoller, 158–67. New York: Dell.

1 N O

This chapter examines the power of language among African American youth, noting that verbal skills are highly developed and highly prized among inner city youth—contrary to the widely held belief that many African American students lack communication skills. The authors assert that African American street culture is synonymous with oral culture: “For a member of street culture, language is not only a communicative device but also a mechanism of control and power” (p. 159). They provide examples in which this is precisely the case. Verbal communication caps in the classroom allow students to exercise power over their teachers. Many teachers see verbal skills as indicators of literacy, but Abrahams and Gay argue that there is more to the language of African Americans. For example, members of this community constantly change their language and reverse the meanings of words, thereby showing great competency in communication. The authors conclude that teachers should embrace and understand the importance of Black students' language.

Abrahams, Roger D. & Rudolph C. Troike (eds.) 1972. Language and Cultural Diversity in American Education. Englewood Clif s, NJ: Prentice Hall.

1 4 5 6 B C E F I N R S

Actouka, Melody & Morris K. Lai. 1989. Project Holopono, Evaluation Report, 1987–1988. College of Education, University of Hawai'i.

2 C

Adams, L. Emilie. 1991. Understanding Jamaican Patois: An Introduction to Afro-Jamaican Grammar. Kingston, Jamaica: LMH Publishing Co.

2 F

Adamson, H. Douglas. 2005. Language Minority Students in American Schools: An Education in English. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [Abstract prepared by ERIC and reprinted with permission of the Department of Education from the Education Resources Information Center at eric.ed.gov.]

1 4 B C P Q T

This book addresses the national debate about how to teach the 3.5 million students in American public schools who do not speak English as a native language. This book places this debate and related issues of teaching Standard English to speakers of nonstandard dialects, such as Black English, within the larger context of language acquisition theory and current methods of language teaching. Adamson draws from the large body of research and on his own experience as an English teacher in the United States and overseas, to shed light on some of these controversies. Presenting all sides of the issues fairly, he offers a strong endorsement for bilingual and bidialectical education. A strength of the book is the inclusion of original research conducted in a middle school enrolling a majority of Latino students. This research contributes to the field of language education by providing a detailed description of how English language learners study content subjects. Examples from the study are used to illustrate a discussion of Vygotskian learning principles and the relationship between the students' home and school cultures. Following a preface, this book is organized into the following chapters: (1) A Personal Introduction; (2) First and Second Language Acquisition; (3) Language Teaching; (4) Standard and Vernacular English; (5) Learning in a Second Language; (6) School and Family; and (7) Bilingual Education.

Adger, Carolyn, Walt Wolfram, Jennifer Detwyler & Beth Harr y. 1992. Confronting Dialect Minority Issues in Special Education: Reactive and Proactive Perspectives. Paper presented at the 3rd National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues: Focus on Middle and High School Issues, Washington, D.C.

1 A S T

Adger, Carolyn Temple. 1993. Language Differences: A New Approach for Special Educators. Teaching Exceptional Children 21.44–47.

A B D V

Adger, Carolyn Temple. 1997. Issues and Implications of English Dialects for Teaching English as a Second Language. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Inc.

2 B S

Adger, Carolyn Temple. 1998. Register Shifting with Dialect Resources in Instructional Discourse. In Kids Talk: Strategic Language Use in Early Childhood, ed. by S. Hoyle & C. T. Adger, 151–69. New York: Oxford University Press.

1 B F N T

Adger, Carolyn Temple & Donna Christian. 2007. Sociolinguistic Variation and Education. In Sociolinguistic Variation: Theories, Methods, and Applications, ed. by R. Bayley & C. Lucas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Abstract graciously provided by Carolyn Temple Adger.]

1 6 B I L P

This chapter provides an overview of iconic links between sociolinguistic variation and education initiated in the 1960s and speculates about why its impact on schools is still limited. The relevance of sociolinguistic research to education emerged with articles such as Labov's (1969) “The Log ic of Non-Standard English” on the mismatch between school speech activities and those in which children demonstrated verbal expertise in their communities. Wolfram (1970) showed that tests in the field of speech/language pathology assumed that normal development was marked by Standard English features and that deviation from that norm represented developmental delay. Common to such efforts to influence educational practices is adherence to principles pointing to the researcher's social obligations beyond the research community. Some early efforts to connect sociolinguistic study to education policy and practice have borne fruit. For example, NCTE affirmed the 1974 resolution of the affiliate Conference on College Composition and Communication on students' rights to their own languages and dialects. Some new instructional approaches use vernacular dialects. One approach to Standard English instruction employs contrastive analysis with a vernacular variety (Wheeler and Swords, 2006). A dialect awareness curriculum introduces fundamental sociolinguistic concepts to students in Grade 4 on up (Wolfram and Reaser, 2004). However, disciplinary perspectives and research findings have not been fully integrated into educational processes. Linguists working in education need to recognize the goals and needs of educators and to tailor their applications to the existing educational framework.

Adger, Carolyn Temple, Donna Christian & Orlando Taylor (eds.) 1999. Making the Connection: Language and Academic Achievement among African American Students. Washington, D.C.: CAL/Delta.

1 B E I K P R S T W

Adger, Carolyn Temple, Walt Wolfram & Donna Christian. 2007. Dialects in Schools and Communities — Second Edition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

L O R W

Adler, Sol. 1978. Language Intervention and the Culturally Different Child. [Abstract prepared by ERIC.]

B S

After describing a variety of compensatory programs that have not been very successful for children who enter school speaking nonstandard dialects, the author describes a bidialectal program that teaches standard usage as “school language” but accepts nonstandard dialects as “everyday language,” and makes the differences explicit.

Afaga, Lorna B. & Morris K. Lai. 1994. Project Akamai, Evaluation Report, 1992–93, Year Four. College of Education, University of Hawaii.

2 B C S

Agnew, Eleanor & Margaret McLaughlin. 1999. Basic Writing Class of '93 Five Years Later: How the Academic Paths of Blacks and Whites Diverged. Journal of Basic Writing 18.40–54.

1 A W

Aguilera, Dorothy & Margaret D. LeCompte. 2009. Restore My Language and Treat Me Justly: Indigenous Students' Rights to Their Tribal Languages. In Affirming Students' Rights to Their Own Language: Bridging Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices, ed. by J. C. Scott, D. Straker & L. Katz, 68–84. Urbana, IL: NCTE.

2 6 P

The authors describe Native Hawaiian efforts to restore and sustain their languages, including Hawaiian Creole English, and place these efforts in the context of other indigenous peoples in the United States, including the Yup'ik people of central Alaska.

Ahler, Janet Goldenstein. 1994. The Evolution of Bilingual Edu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• NCTE-Routledge Research Series
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Topic Overviews and Short Citation Lists
• Bibliography
• About the Authors