What Is “Standard”?

1. Artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat What Is “Standard”? “Standard English” and Literacy in the African-American Vernacular English Speech Community Matt Beach Note: Herein, SE denotes Standard English; AAVE denotes African-American Vernacular English.

2. Educational Institutional Rhetoric • Common Core Standards • What is literacy? • Who decides?

3. From Common Core Language Arts Standards

4. Read the article, “What is Literacy?,” and fill in the blanks.

5. Who (from what culture—class, race, etc.) do you think determines “proper” Standard English? From The New Oxford American Dictionary From Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Notice: “All of the pronunciations recorded in this book can be documented as falling within the range of generally acceptable variation.” (my emphasis) What is generally acceptable? To whom? Notice: “The New Oxford American Dictionary records and exemplifies the most important of these [lexical and syntactic] patterns at the relevant senses of each word, thus giving guidance on language as well as word meaning.”

6. List 10 words of your choice. Look up the same 10 words in each dictionary and jot down the definitions. What are some differences?

7. What is AAVE? Linguistic Components of AAVE History and Origins

8. Linguistic Components of AAVE Zero copula (absence of “to be” verb): from Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” to Ice Cube’s “We Be Clubbin’” What are some linguistic differences between SE and AAVE? Grammar, semantics, and phonology: 1. Read Walt Wolfram’s “The Grammar of Urban African American Vernacular English.” (pp. 117-131) Then, answer these questions. Examine the AAVE phonological chart. Then, look up 5 words in the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and discuss the differences in pronunciation between the dictionary (SE) and the chart (AAVE).

9. History and Origins 1. Hypothesized Origins of AAVE Follow the link to study the terms and definitions related to the origin of AAVE, play the games, and take the quiz! 2. Timeline Follow the link above. Examine the timeline to fill in the missing components. 3. Historical Attitudes Regarding AAVE in Education Read the passage and note your thoughts: you will need to explain your stance later.

10. Bad or Different? “Igno-Ebonics” —Bill Cosby Is AAVE bad English, or is it different English? The Bill Cosby Case The “Do You Speak American?” Case Many others supported the use of AAVE in classrooms. During the Oakland debates of ‘96 and ‘97, prominent African-Americans, such as Jesse Jackson (at first), Maya Angelou, Arsenio Hall, KwesiMfume, Shelby Steele, Eldridge Cleaver, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., denounced the use of AAVE in classrooms. “But to call black vernacular speech in toto ‘igno,’ man, you might as well bust the real dirty dozens on our peops for continuing to use what we inherited from our mamas, grandmamas, and great granddaddies. I mean, it’s like slappin’ our linguistic forebears in the face.” --Kermit Campbell What is your stance?

11. White English v. Black English “The notion of black English in turn connotes the existence of white English, as the same female staff pointed out: ‘Everybody has their own dialect and you don’t label that. You don’t label the way a white person speaks, but you label African Americans . . .’ Then, all too often, white English becomes synonymous with ‘standard English’ in spite of the fact that millions of Euro-Americans speak ‘nonstandard, stigmatized’ dialects. Thus the term ‘standard English’ ‘becomes something which is divisive, something which suggests superiority, something which suggests superiority on the part of those who might have access to this so-called standard English, and then certainly it suggests inferiority on the part of those who do not have access, who might speak differently’ (male professor)” (Speicher & McMahon, 1992). School English v. Home English What are your thoughts?

12. Cultural Values Read pp. 2-4 in Ogbu’s article, “Beyond Language: Ebonics, Proper English, and Identity in a Black-American Speech Community.” What roles do cultural values play in communication between teacher and student– between SE and AAVE? Write your thoughts here.

13. Hip Hop Culture: v Start here.v Limited v. Limitless (Alim, 2011)

14. Hip Hop Culture: Expressions How many Hip Hop expressions can you name? “[AAVE] is more than just language—invariant be’s, double negatives, and inverted semantics—it is rhetoric, a highly developed discursive system . . . a rhetorical tradition from the West African griot to African American street-corner rappers, Spoken Word poets, and Hip hop artists” (Campell, 2005, p. 3). Check out this list of some Hip Hop-created linguistic contributions.

15. Poetry Slams “Coded Language” by Saul Williams Lyrics How does Saul Williams use and manipulate language to more fully express his ideas and experiences?

16. Write Your Own Rap or Poem Think about ways the AAVE speech community has struggled to maintain identity and expressive value in high school language arts or other classes. Write a rap or poem that expresses your thoughts. You may draw from personal experiences or from observations. Think about how will you express yourself. How can you open up the English language? What words will you use? You can make up your own words to more vividly express yourself. Be as creative as you can! Write your rap or poem in your journal. Then, go to the studio to track your record.

17. References Articles: Alim, H. (2011). Global ill-literacies: Hip hop cultures, youth identities, and the politics of literacy. Review of Research in Education, 35, 120-146. Campbell, K. (2005). Getting’ our groove on: Rhetoric, language, and literacy for the hip hop generation. Detroit, MI: Wayne State UP. Ogbu, J. (1999). Beyond language: Ebonics, proper English, and identity in a Black-American speech community. American Educational Research Journal, 36(2), 147-184. Retrieved from http://aer.sagepub.com/ Speicher, B., & McMahon, S. (1992). Some African-American perspectives on Black English Vernacular. Language in Society, 21(3), 383-407. Retrieved from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=LSY Wolfram, W. (2000). The grammar of urban africanamerican vernacular English. Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/docs/pdfs/walt/PDF-Urban_AAE.pdf

18. References, cont. Web URLs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1-FgkfWo8&feature=c-shelf-119 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWIbIA9BltQ&playnext=1&list=PLF67F5B2C81B0EB8C&feature=results_video http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards/english-language-arts-standards http://www.edc.org/newsroom/articles/what_literacy http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ http://www.urbandictionary.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzY2-GRDiPM http://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/spa/phonology/features.htm http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/timeline/ http://quizlet.com/1274208/aave-flash-cards/ http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unk0OiIitw4 http://www.scribd.com/doc/16522469/List-of-Slang-Used-in-Hiphop-Music http://www.metrolyrics.com/coded-language-lyrics-saul-williams.html