Understanding Ebonics

The recent decision by the Oakland Board of Education was a good illustration why it is sometimes hard to have a reasoned discussion about issues in public education, particularly urban public education. The facts just get in the way of either a good story or the need to score political points.

At this juncture, the public knows little about the December 18 decision of the Oakland School Board or the circumstances that led them to it other than it appeared to be multi-culturalism run amok. Carefully worded assertions were made about a school system on the prowl for stray federal Bilingual Education dollars or that the schools were ready to begin teaching "Ebonics" as an alternative to standard English. And there were the not-so carefully worded questions, "Could it happen here?" as if Ebonics and Eboli were the same thing.

What did Oakland do and why did they do it? The clearest answer rests in the resolution that the Oakland Board of Education actually voted on. It passed a "policy affirming Standard American English language development for all students." There was no compromise about the centrality of Standard English in American life. There was no pretense that some other language held the keys to success for Oakland students. There was no equating languages.

The Oakland Board of Education resolution did argue that Black students sometimes spoke with a language that was at least partially derived from their African and West Indian heritage. The Board also argued that this language structure--well studied for many years by respected scholars--ought to be respected because of that derivation and not simply dismissed as bad English. They did not pass an official edict that Ebonics was a new second language. They did say that teaching African American kids to read and write might be done more effectively if we stopped telling them they were wrong all the time.

The reason for the decision was not very complicated. African American school students in Oakland are not doing very well in reading and writing. And the Oakland Board of Education and its Superintendent wanted to try a different approach--one based on respect rather than ridicule.

The first news that Ebonics was spreading across the land had almost everyone responding in horror. "They are dumbing down in an attempt to lift up." You could see an entire nation rolling its eyes. You could sense the regulations being re-written to make sure Oakland was ineligible for grant support. And you could feel the disparagement.

The Oakland Schools were accused with attempting to legitimate slang, sanction bad English and permanently isolate African American children. The truth is that the program is consistent with California's "Standard English Proficiency Program (SEP)," complements the system's attempts to raise academic standards for all its children, and equips teachers with a new approach for understanding language development. Preliminary evaluations indicate that the program does what it is supposed to: raise student academic achievement. Isn't that what the standards movement is all about?

It doesn't require a linguist to notice how quickly people rushed to judgment on this. There was nearly an automatic assumption that "Ebonics" was inferior, whatever it was and however it was being used. People didn't need to hear much more than that the word was a combination of terms, one referring to African Americans and the other to language. The mixture defined inferiority for too many people.

We now have a new way to divide people. Standard American English, the people who speak it solely and believe in its sanctity are good; Ebonics, the people who speak it and acknowledge its existence are bad. This debate is not about good versus bad, excellence versus inferiority. It is about how we get from here to there, i.e., how we move from schools that are not succeeding with African American children to the extent they should to schools that equip all students with a common language that is the coin of the realm for future success in American society.

What started as a way of acknowledging and respecting people's differences and then building from them to a language we could all share is now evolving into another "us" versus "them" discussion. This Holiday Season would be a good time to lower our voices, understand what this debate is about and what it is not about, and to resist using the issue as a way of scoring points.

Council of the Great City Schools http://www.cgcs.org/
1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 702
Washington, D.C. 20004
(202) 393-2427, (202) 393-2400 (fax)

Urban scores show huge room for improvement
Wednesday, July 23, 2003 Posted: 9:45 AM EDT (1345 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/07/22/city.schools.scores.ap/index.html -- Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Students in six big cities are largely behind their national peers in reading and writing, but there are pockets of promising performance, new figures show.

The 2002 urban scores are the first school-district results to be included in the report card known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress . The achievement yardstick, which began in 1969, had only covered state and national performance. The National Center for Education Statistics, an arm of the Education Department, runs the assessment, which periodically tracks achievement on a range of core subjects.

Six school districts volunteered to set an urban benchmark, allowing them to compare their fourth-graders and eighth-graders and to gauge whether school reforms work over time. The six are Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California and New York.

"We knew we were taking a risk in joining up for this test, knowing it was going to be another case of Atlanta students underperforming," said Sharron Hunt, chief accountability officer for Atlanta Public Schools. "That doesn't mean we have low expectations; I believe the students can and will achieve higher rates -- all of our students."

The standard for all students is "proficient," which means solid academic performance at a given grade. Nationally, only about three in 10 students reach or exceed that mark in reading and writing; urban students did worse than that, with their results varying by city.

That's no surprise, educators say, because city schools have higher rates of students who are poor or speak English as a second language. The six districts all have high percentages of black or Hispanic students, who typically score below whites on standardized tests.

The achievement gap is about the same in most of the six cities as it is across the country, which suggests it is a national concern as much as an urban one, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, the coalition of large urban districts that pushed for the new tests.

In Los Angeles, roughly 40 percent of fourth-graders tested had limited English ability. That's a factor, not an excuse, said Roy Romer, superintendent of the city's school district.

"The value to us is, over time, how do we change?" Romer said. "We're low, but we are coming up rapidly." He said elementary grade scores in the city have increased at twice the state average, as measured by California tests.

Closing the gap

In Atlanta, Hunt said, the national scores will do more than serve as a starting point -- they will drive change. For example, the district may realize it must put more emphasis on a specific reading skill, or it could shift some lessons to an earlier grade, she said.

In nearly all cases, the city students fared better in writing than in reading.

Compared to those who reached the proficient mark, a higher percentage of city students read and wrote at a basic level or better. That means they had at least partial mastery of skills needed for solid work. Still, they scored below the national average in most cases.

Among the bright spots, officials said: Fourth-grade writers in New York matched the national average of students who achieved at least proficient writing -- meaning organized, detailed work that developed the main idea and showed awareness of the audience. Houston fourth-graders also performed similarly to national peers in writing.

Although the District of Columbia was included among the urban scores for comparative purposes, its results were first released with state and national data earlier this year.

Among some other key findings of the city scores:

--In writing, 11 to 27 percent of fourth-graders met or exceeded the proficient mark; 10 to 19 percent of eighth-graders did so. National averages are 27 percent and 30 percent.

--In reading, 10 to 19 percent of fourth-graders reached at least the proficient level; 8 to 17 percent of eighth-graders did the same. The national average is about 30 percent in both grades.

--New York schools had the highest percentage of fourth-graders who scored at or above proficient in reading and writing. The district did not have enough schools participating for eighth-grade results to be reported.

--Houston schools had the highest percentage of eighth-graders who met or exceeded the proficient level in reading and writing.

Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pennsylvania, an advocate for equal resources in all school districts, said the condition of urban schools is the key point, not race or student poverty. Big-city students have "the least qualified teachers, the most overcrowded classrooms and the most outdated learning materials," he said.

Ebonics by Charles Barron

Featured Article: LET'S GET HOOKED ON "EBONICS"!
Copyright December 1996

Education, and bilingual education in the k-12 classroom.

Many people who I highly respect have disagreed with the recent development regarding " Black English" or "Ebonics" . Instead of appplauding the Oakland unified school districts decision to require teachers to learn "Ebonics" they deemed it "foolish" and believe that it is "teaching down" to our African American children.

Many African Americans and others miss the point. Since coming to the shores of America as enslaved Africans our oppressors have placed a negative value judgment upon our African-ness. They said our hair was bad, so we straightened it. They said our skin was too dark, so we lightened it. They said our noses and lips were to broad and thick so we made them thinner. They said we spoke bad or broken English, so we had to learn to speak "proper" or "standard English".

What the Oakland decision says is that we don't speak broken, improper, nor bad English, we speak differently. Once you put a value judgment on speech, that's the beginning of the perpetuation of Black inferiority and white superiority complexes. Speech is neither good nor bad, it's different. Isn't it interesting how some White Americans say we speak bad English and the people of England say that White Americans "messed up the Queen's English". We must understand that standardizing English doesn't mean that it's better or proper. It means that people in power want to impose their language on the masses in order to maintain their control and dominance. I'm not saying don't teach standard English. What I am saying is that we must use Ebonics as the bases for building a bridge for learning standard English. We also want to be clear that when we speak Ebonic s, we're talking about a unique way of speaking that has it's roots in Western African languages that have different syntax, phonics, and grammatical structure than standard English. We're not talking about teaching " black slang " but rather acknowledging Ebonics as a separate language, unique to people of African ancestry.

For decades researchers and linguists have validated that Ebonics is the evolution of African languages coming into contact contact with European languages over the centuries. Many linguist trace "Ebonics" back to about 1619. When a Dutch vessel landed with a cargo of twenty Africans in Jamestown Virginia. The slave master forced the Africans, who spoke different West African languages i.e., (Ibo, Yoruba, Hausa) to learn English in order to communicate with the master. The Africans merely substituted English vocabulary for African vocalublary, but maintained the West African phonics, grammar and sentence structure , i.e.,

This table is taken from an article on Black English: It's History and Its Role in Education of Our Children: Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black America, by Geneva Smitherman, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986. Grammar and Structure rule in West African Language Black English or Ebonics Construction of sentences without the form of the verb to be.

He sick today.

They talkin about school now.

Repitition of noun subject with pronoun My father, he work there.

Question patterns without do What it come to?

Same form of noun for singular and plural one boy; five boy

No tense indicated in verb I know it good when he ask me

Same verb form for all subjects I know; you know;

he know; we know, they know

Sound rule in West African Languages Black English or Ebonics

No consonant pairs jus (for just); men (for mend) Few long vowels or

two-part vowel (dipthongs) rat (for right); tahm (for time)

No /r/ sound mow (for more)

No /th/ sound substitution of /d/ or /f/ for /th/; souf

(for south) and dis (for this)

Language has often been used as a tool of oppression by those who compromise the ruling class in order to continue their subjugation and dominance over people of color in particular and poor people in general. On June 16, 1976 in Soweto South Africa, African students organized an uprising to protest the teaching of "Afrikaans" the oppressor's language in their schools. It was so important that this language be taught, that the Afrikaners, the whites in power, ordered their army to massacre over one thousand African youth. The point being made here is that the South African oppressors who wanted to maintain that racist demonic system of apartheid, forced their language on African youth in order to maintain their dominace for generations to come.

Another case in point is the idea of forcing Puerto Rican people to learn Castellan Spanish. Have you ever wondered why some Puerto Ricans who speak Spanish can easily fail Spanish in school? Well it's because some Puerto Ricans say they are not Spaniards. Spaniards are whites from Spain, a European country. Puerto Ricans are a mixture of Taino natives, Africans, Portugese and Spaniards. Puerto Ricans are not speaking broken nor bad Spanish. They're speaking their own native language that has different historical/cultural influences.

It is the same case for African Americans. We have five major historical/cultural influences on our speech.

1. West African Languages

2. A pidgin dialect that was used during the slave trade

3. The Gullah language used when we were brought to the sea islands of the Carolinas in America. ("Daughters of the Dust" was a film that truly captured the essence of our culture and the evolution of our speech)

4. The speech we created "Up South" in the north when we were crammed into high rise tenements in urban ghettos

5. Standard English.

"Ebonics" is an assertion of our unique experience as African Americans. Ebonics synthesizes our unique African and American cultural/historical experiences and yields a language that authentically represents who we are as a people.

In 1973, Dr. Robert Williams coined the phrase "Ebonics" combining ebony/black with phonics/sound.

White supremacy has reigned supreme in education for centuries. White culture has been unfairly forced upon a multi-cultural nation for far too long now. Ebonics is an extremely important and significant step in the right direction for people of African ancestry. The bottom line is that we speak the way we speak because we are Africans not uneducated African Americans!

As we move ever so swiftly into the twenty-first century, we as an African people here in America must assert our right to self-determination, self-identity and self-definition. We must liberate ourselves from the mental and physical oppression of White supremacy. Having teachers learn Ebonics, means that they must learn the cultural-historical context in which people of African ancestry derived their identity and acquistition of language. Ebonics breaks the psychological boundary of White supremacy.

As a Leadership Scientist and Social Activist, I say, hurry up! Bring on Ebonics so that we can build self-esteem and self-confidence in our children as they learn standard English without degrading the African roots embedded within their speech. Let's embrace the "Ebonics" movement. For it is truly a move in the right direction. Remember the struggle may be long but the victory is certain!

By Charles Barron
Copyright December 1996
Gullah

Dynamics of Leadership, Inc.
26 Court Street, Suite 2403
Brooklyn, New York 11242
Phone: (718) 722-7604 Fax: (718) 722-7508
E-mail: cbdynamics@igc.apc.org

Learn More about "Ebonics" and dialect speakers from Dr. John Rickford at the Educational CyberPlayGround.

Writings on the "Ebonics"
issue since December, 1996

Writings on the "Ebonics" issue since December, 1996

S.B. 205 --Well-intentioned but uninformed

This Op Ed submission was written and submitted to the Los Angeles Times on 3/28/97 to counteract California Senate Bill 205, the misguided legislation being introduced by Senator Raymond Haynes (R, Riverside). S.B. 205 would get rid of the California Standard English Proficiency (SEP) program and ban any recognition of or reference to Ebonics and other vernaculars in the process of teaching standard English, although the research evidence in favor of vernacular-based approaches like contrastive analysis (at the heart of the SEP) is persuasive.

Senate Bill 205: Equality in English Instruction Act

Here is the legislative history and current form of California Senate Bill 205, which is set for hearing April 2, and which would have the unfortunate effect, if passed, of killing the "Standard English Proficiency" program and any attempt (like contrastive analysis or dialect readers) to take the vernacular of Ebonics and other dialect speakers into account in teaching Standard English, contra all the research evidence, which shows that these innovative programs work well and that existing methods of teaching English in the inner city work poorly or not at all. I am grateful to Elaine Richardson of the University of Minnesota for providing me with the current text. Concerned individuals should contact any California State Senators. Three whose phone/fax numbers appear in my directory are: Alfred E. Alquist

(13th District) 916-445-9740; Henry J. Mello, (15th District),

916-445-5843, fax 916-448-0175, email: senator.mello@sen.ca.gov and Byron D. Sher (11th District), 916-445-6747, fax 415-364-2102.

Ebonics Notes and Discussion

This is the first thing I wrote on the Ebonics issue after the Oakland School Board resolution of December 1996. Anita Manning of USA Today asked for some sample sentences, and I came up with these, together with a discussion of the ways in which they demonstrate the systematicity of African American Vernacular English [AAVE-- the term linguists use more often for what most people are now referring to as Ebonics, with Ron Williams' 1975 term]. Included in this is Toni Morrison's beautiful quote on the richness and value of the vernacular.

The Oakland Ebonics decision: Commendable attack on the problem

I wrote this OpEd piece, which appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on December 26, 1996, after being somewhat frustrated with talking to reporters for an hour or more and seeing what I said reduced to a sentence.

LSA Resolution on the Oakland "Ebonics" Issue

This is the Linguistics Society of America resolution I drafted which wasunanimously approved, with minor amendments, at the society's business meeting in Chicago on January 3, 1997.

This January 22, 1997 letter to Senator Arlen Specter was included in the record of the Senate hearings on Ebonics as an addendum to the testimony of Oakland School Superintendent Carolyn Getridge. It provides a survey of six studies which demonstrate the value of taking the vernacular variety of a language into account in teaching students to read and write and make successful transitions to the standard variety. I subsequently incorporated much of this into the following OpEd piece:

The Evolution of the Ebonics Issue

This is the OpEd piece I submitted to the New York Times on January 23, 1997 .

To the editors, The New Republic

This is a letter I wrote to the editors of The New Republic responding to Jacob Heilbrum's inaccurate and misleading article: "Speech Therapy"

To the editors, Newsweek

I wrote this letter to the editors of Newsweek to respond to Ellis Cose's column in their Jan 13 issue, entitled, "The irrelevance of Ebonics." The column represents the commonly voiced (but in my opinion incorrect) view that the failure of schools to educate inner city African Americans, particularly in the Language arts, is due to problems like facilities, teacher training, low expectations and so on (all of which I would agree are important), but has nothing to do with the language children bring to school and how schools respond to it.

Views of several linguists and anthropologists on the Ebonics issue: Part 1Views of several linguists and anthropologists on the Ebonics issue:

Leila Monaghan of Pitzer College has put together the views of several linguists and anthropologists on the Ebonics issue for the February 1997

Society for Linguistic Anthropology column. Part 1 contains statements from Jack Sidnell, Leanne Hinton, Marcyliena Morgan, John McWhorter, John Rickford (editied version of my Dec 26 SJ Mercury Op Ed piece), and Ron Kephart. Part 2 contains statements from Charles Fillmore, Susan Ervin-Tripp, and John Clark. References appear at the end of Part 2.

Other related websites:

Synopsis of the Oakland School District policy on standard American

English language development

Professor William Labov's homepage

Professor Jim Wilce's homepage

Chicago Tribute articles on the Ebonics debate

User discussion of the Ebonics issue on afronet.com

Linguistic Society of America resolution on the Oakland "Ebonics" issue

Bryan McLucas's brief overview of AAVE

Joycelyn Landrum-Brown's lecture notes on Black English

Links to information about English Creoles

ETHNOLOGUE: Languages of the World

WWW Virtual Library: Linguistics "The Ebonic Plague?"

From rickford@Csli.Stanford.EDU Sat Apr 5 18:47:34 1997

Dr. John Rickford titles of papers
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~rickford/

Writings On The "Ebonics" Issue

Following is the complete text of the Oakland, Calif., board of education resolution adopted Dec. 18, 1996, regarding "ebonics.''

Resolution of the board of education adopting the report and recommendations of the African-American Task Force; a policy statement and directing the superintendent of schools to devise a program to improve the English-language acquisition and application skills of African-American students.

No. 9697-0063

Whereas, numerous validated scholarly studies demonstrate that African-American students as part of their culture and history an African people possess and utilize a language described in various scholarly approaches as " Ebonics '' (literally Black sounds) or Pan-African Communication Behaviors or African Language Systems ; and

Whereas, these studies have also demonstrated that African Language Systems are genetically based and not a dialect of English; and

Whereas, these studies demonstrate that such West and Niger-Congo African languages have been officially recognized and addressed in the mainstream public educational community as worth of study, understanding, or application of its principles, laws, and structures for the benefit of African-American students both in terms of positive appreciation of the language and these students' acquisition and mastery of English-language skills; and

Whereas such recognition by scholars has given rise over the past 15 years to legislation passed by the state of California recognizing the unique language stature of descendants of slaves , with such legislation being prejudicially and unconstitutionally vetoed repeatedly by various California state governors; and

Whereas, judicial cases in states other than California have recognized the unique language stature of African-American pupils, and such recognition by courts has resulted in court-mandated educational programs which have substantially benefited African-American children in the interest of vindicating their equal protection of the law rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and

Whereas, the Federal Bilingual Education Act (20 USC 1402 et seq .) mandates that local educational agencies "build their capacities to establish, implement, and sustain programs of instruction for children and youth of limited English proficiency,'' and

Whereas, the interests of the Oakland Unified School District in providing equal opportunities for all of its students dictate limited-English-proficient educational programs recognizing the English-language acquisition and improvement skills of African-American students are as fundamental as is application of bilingual education principles for others whose primary languages are other than English; and

Whereas, the standardized tests and grade scores of African-American students in reading and language arts skills measuring their application of English skills are substantially below state and national norms and that such deficiencies will be remedied by application of a program featuring African Language Systems principles in instructing African-American children both in their primary language and in English; and

Whereas, standardized tests and grade scores will be remedied by application of a program with teachers and aides, who are certified in the methodology of featuring African Language Systems principles in instructing African-American children both in their primary language and in English. The certified teachers of these students will be provided incentives including, but not limited to, salary differentials.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of education officially recognizes the existence and the cultural and historic bases of West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems , and each language as the predominately primary language of African-American students; and

Be it further resolved that the board of education hereby adopts the report recommendations and attached policy statement of the district's African American Task Force on language stature of African-American speech; and

Be it further resolved that the superintendent in conjunction with her staff shall immediately devise and implement the best possible academic program for imparting instruction to African-American students in their primary language for the combined purposes of maintaining the legitimacy and richness of such language whether it is known as " Ebonics ,'' " African Language Systems ,'' "Pan African Communication Behaviors,'' or other description and to facilitate their acquisition and mastery of English-language skills ; and

Be it further resolved that the board of education hereby commits to earmark district general and special funding as is reasonably necessary and appropriate to enable the superintendent and her staff to accomplish the foregoing; and

Be it further resolved that the superintendent and her staff shall utilize the input of the entire Oakland educational community, as well as state and federal scholarly and educational input, in devising such a program; and

Be it further resolved that periodic reports on the progress of the creation and implementation of such an educational program shall be made to board of education at least once per month commencing at the board meeting of Dec. 18, 1996.

Policy Statement

There is persuasive empirical evidence that, predicated on analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax that currently exists as systematic, rule-governed and predictable patterns exist in the grammar of African-American speech. The validated and persuasive linguistic evidence is that African-Americans (1) have retained a West and Niger-Congo African linguistic structure in the substratum of their speech and (2) by this criteria are not native speakers of a black dialect or any other dialect of English.

Moreover, there is persuasive empirical evidence that, owing to their history as U.S. slave descendants of West and Niger-Congo African origin, to the extent that African-Americans have been born into, reared in, and continue to live in linguistic environments that are different from the Euro-American English-speaking population, African-American people and their children, are from home environments in which a language other than English language is dominant within the meaning of "environment where a language other than English is dominant'' as defined in Public Law 1-13-382 (20 USC 7402, et seq.).

The policy of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) is that all pupils are equal and are to be treated equally. Hence, all pupils who have difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language and whose difficulties may deny to them the opportunity to learn successfully in classrooms where the language of instruction is English or to participate fully in classrooms where the language of instruction is English or to participate fully in our society are to be treated equally regardless of their race or national origin.

As in the case of Asian-American, Latino-American, Native American, and all other pupils in this district who come from backgrounds or environments where a language other than English is dominant, African-American pupils shall not, because of their race, be subtly dehumanized, stigmatized, discriminated against, or denied. Asian-American, Latino-American, Native American, and all other language-different children are provided general funds for bilingual education, English as a Second Language (ESL) and state and federal (Title VIII) bilingual education programs to address their limited and non-English-proficient (LEP/NEP) needs. African-American pupils are equally entitled to be tested and, where appropriate, shall be provided general funds and state and federal (Title VIII) bilingual education and ESL programs to specifically address their LEP/NEP needs.

All classroom teachers and aides who are bilingual in Nigritian Ebonics (African-American Language) and English shall be given the same salary differentials and merit increases that are provided to the teachers of the non-African-American LEP pupils in the OUSD.

With a view toward assuring that parents of African-American pupils are given the knowledge base necessary to make informed decisions, it shall be the policy of the Oakland Unified School District that all parents of LEP (limited-English-proficient) pupils are to be provided the opportunity to partake of any and all language- and culture-specific teacher education and training classes designed to address their child's LEP needs.

On all home-language surveys given to parents of pupils requesting home-language identification or designations, a description of the district's programmatic consequences of their choices will be contained.

Nothing in this policy shall preclude or prevent African-American parents who view their child's limited English proficiency as being non-standard English, as opposed to being West and Niger-Congo African Language based, from exercising their right to choose and to have their child's speech disorders and English-language deficits addressed by special education and/or other district programs.

Response fromLINGUIST List 8.57 Sun Jan 19 1997 Disc: Ebonics: LSA Resolution Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristar@linguistlist.org>

Directory

1.The LINGUIST List, LSA Resolution on Ebonics

Message 1: LSA Resolution on Ebonics

Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 22:06:43 -0500 From: The LINGUIST List <linguist@linguistlist.org> Subject: LSA Resolution on Ebonics

[Moderators' Note: As a service to our readers, we post here the Linguistics Society of America's recent resolution on ebonics.]

LSA RESOLUTION ON THE OAKLAND "EBONICS" ISSUE

Whereas there has been a great deal of discussion in the media and among the American public about the l8 December l996 decision of the Oakland School Board to recognize the language variety spoken by many African American students and to take it into account in teaching Standard English, the Linguistic Society of America, as a society of scholars engaged in the scientific study of language, hereby resolves to make it known that:

a. The variety known as "Ebonics," "African American Vernacular English" (AAVE), and "Vernacular Black English" and by other names is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech varieties. In fact, all human linguistic systems--spoken, signed, and written -- are fundamentally regular. 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.

b. The distinction between "languages" and "dialects" is usually made more on social and political grounds than on purely linguistic ones. For example, different varieties of Chinese are popularly regarded as "dialects," though their speakers cannot understand each other, but speakers of Swedish and Norwegian, which are regarded as separate "languages," generally understand each other. What is important from a linguistic and educational point of view is not whether AAVE is called a "language" or a "dialect" but rather that its systematicity be recognized.

c. As affirmed in the LSA Statement of Language Rights (June l996), there are individual and group benefits to maintaining vernacular speech varieties and there are scientific and human advantages to linguistic diversity. For those living in the United States there are also benefits in acquiring Standard English and resources should be made available to all who aspire to mastery of Standard English. The Oakland School Board's commitment to helping students master Standard English is commendable.

d. 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.

Chicago, Illinois January l997 ---- Selected References (books only) Baratz, Joan C., and Roger W. Shuy, eds. 1969. Teaching Black Children to read. Washington, DC: Center or Applied Linguistics. Baugh, John . 1983. Black street speech: Its history, structure and survival. Austin: University of Texas Press. Bloome, David, and J. Lemke, eds. 1995. Special Issue: Africanized English and Education. Linguistics and Educaton 7. Burling, Robbins. 1973. English in black and white. New York: Holt. Butters, Ron. 1989. The death of Black English: Convergence and divergence in American English. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Dandy, Evelyn. 1991. Black communications: Breaking down the barriers. Chicago: African American Images. DeStephano, Johanna 1973, ed. Language, society and education: A profile of Black English. Worthington, OH: Charles A. Jones. Dillard, J. L. 1972. Black English: Its history and usage in the United States. New York: Random House. Fasold, Ralph W., and Roger W. Shuy, eds. 1970. Teaching Standard English in the inner city. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Gadsden, V. and D. Wagner , eds. 1995. Literacy among African American youth. Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Jones, Regina, ed. 1996. Handbook of tests and measurements for Black populations. Hampton, VA: Cobbs and Henry. Kochman, Thomas. 1981. Black and white styles in conflict. NY: Holt Rinehart. Kochman, Thomas, ed. 1972. Rappin' and stylin' out. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Labov, William 1972. Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English verna cular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Lippi-Green, Rosina. To appear. English with an accent. London: Routledge. Mufwene, Salikoko S., John R. Rickford, Guy Bailey and John Baugh, eds. To appear. African American English. London: Routledge. Rickford, John R ., and Lisa Green. To appear. African American Vernacular English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Shuy, Roger W., ed. 1965 . Social dialects and language learning. Champaign, Ill., National Council of Teachers of English. Simpkins, G., G. Holt, and C. Simpkins. 1977. Bridge: A cross-cultural reading program. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Smith, Ernie A. 1994. The historical development of African American Language. Los Angeles: Watts College Press. Smitherman, Geneva. 1986. Talkin and testifyin: The language of Black America. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. _____ 1994 Black Talk. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. _____, ed. 1981. Black English and the Education of Black Children and Youth. Detroit: Center for Black Studies, Wayne State University Press. Taylor, Hanni U. 1989. Standard English, Black English, and bidialectalism: A controversy. NY: Peter Lang. Williams, Robert L. 1975 Ebonics: The true language of Black folks. St Louis: Institute of Black Studies. Wolfram, Walt 1969. A linguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. _____ 1991. Dialects and American English. Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice Hall and Center for Applied Linguistics. Wolfram, Walter A., and Donna Christian 1989. Dialects and education: Issues and answers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Wolfram, Walter A. and Clarke, Nona, eds. 1971. Black-White speech relationships. Washington: Center for Applied Linguistics.