Ebonics

A Case Study in Language, Power, and Pedagogy

Bibliographic Data

ID10818802
AuthorsDenise E Murray (0000-0003-3386-0421, San Jose State University, corresponding author), Denise Murray
Year1998
Volume32
Issue1
Pages144
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTESOL Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-8322 • E-ISSN: 1545-7249
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3587912
OpenAlexW2040302768
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited4

The Ebonics debate is relevant to all those engaged in language education, whether as classroom teachers, teacher educators, materials writers, or policy makers. All educators who wish to validate and nurture diversity (e.g., Delpit, 1995) need to be informed by the issues raised by Smitherman (this volume). My goal here is to demonstrate that the issues around Ebonics are the issues vital to all language educatorslanguage, power, and pedagogy. These issues are not confined to African American language use in the U.S. The axes of language, power, and pedagogy affect the teaching of languages in a variety of situationsMalaysian parents choosing to send their children to a school where American English rather than Malaysian English is used, Korean educational policy whereby English is taught in primary schools, the hiring of a Spanish speaker from Spain to teach a bilingual Spanish-English class in which all the Spanish-speaking students speak Mexican Spanish, mother tongue education in Kenya, and the retraining of Russian teachers to teach English in Poland. I will confine my remarks to the field of language education, which I use to include teaching English to speakers of other languages.1

Linguistics · Pedagogy · Sociology · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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