re Re: re Re: re Re: SLSL language

[Abdiel OAbdiel]

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> on 16/3/03 9:07 AM, calbert at hslboxmaster.com wrote:
> 
> > I would argue that its usage is not standard
> across african
> > american "communities" spanning the US...and,
> furthermore, that,
> > if you include ALL african english speaking
> groups, the disparity
> > widens.
> 
> That's not quite what you were claiming, of course.
> But on this point,
> so-called "standard" American English is not
> standard across white
> communities spanning the U.S. either, and it varies
> in the same ways
> (pronunciation, word stress, sentence intonation,
> vocab. etc), and probably
> to as great a degree, as African American English
> does. As far as I can see
> in this argument, the only real difference is the
> colour of the skin of the
> people doing the speaking.

Athough one of the things that frightens the language
mavens most is the fact that Ebonics has become a
lingua franca in some working class communities. 

Also, of 35 million African Americans, 95%  speak
Ebonics. 

Middle class and professional class Blacks speak
Ebonics, SAE, Non-Standard American English.

Working class and un-working class Blacks speak
Ebonics, non-Standard American English and some degree
of SAE. 

Obviously, depending on the place, the circumstances,
all of the above languages and dialects may be used by
one speaker in the course of a single conversation or
even in a single statemet. 


> 
> > as a practical matter,  how do you
> > teach the teachers all the various argots  they
> may need  to employ
> > in a  NY City classroom  for example? In a  class
> with kids from
> > chinatown, Brighton Beach, and harlem - which
> "argot" do you
> > privilege?

Obviously you've never taught in a NYC school where
this challange is met every sing day and privlidge has
nothing at all to do with it. 


> 
> English is still the main medium of instruction. But
> there are ethnic aides,
> and parent helpers, and bilingual dictionaries and
> workbooks, and listening
> tapes, and all manner of ways to make the classroom
> a culturally inclusive
> environment. All it takes is for the teacher to
> validate the student's home
> language every once in a while, and this can be
> achieved in all sorts of
> ways. The curriculum is already organised to cater
> to the diverse needs of
> individual students and groups of students.
> Newly-arrived migrants and
> refugees require and do receive Intensive English
> instruction for a period
> of time, and their teachers are assisted by
> bilingual aides and resources.
> We have Community Languages classes and teachers
> too, where lessons are
> taught in syudents' first languages for one or two
> lessons a week, and I see
> no reason why African American students (or
> Aboriginal students here) should
> be excluded from such programs. For the umpteenth
> time, no-one is advocating
> that "standard" English be thrown out the window.

Sound just like the teaching methods of NYC. 
Surprise, surprise. Does it work here? As long as 
prescription doesn't "interfere" we have sucess. From
time to time we pull some dusty old latin grammar out
of the basements. It's not a very useful mata-language
for teaching English. Prescription simply doesn't
work. It's not even a very good tool for L1 writing
instruction in SAE. 



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