It Ain't What You Say, It's the Way You Say It

Since the post-Emancipation Period, Ebonics speakers have outnumbered Mainstream American English (MAE) speakers more than ten to one in the Black community. As early as 1 775, Ebonics was identified and described by Americans. However, since the 1960s, much frustration and difficulty have been encountered by educators attempting to teach MAE to Ebonics speakers who desire or need to communicate in MAE. Interviews of parents and students by Taylor (1973) and Smith (1974) revealed that parents tend to correct their children's speech when they are observed to be employing features of their dominant language, Ebonics. However, when the children attempt to make these corrections themselves, they make modifications that are random and incorrect because they are unaware of conflict points between Ebonics and MAE. While there are many arguments for and against the teaching of MAE to Black people who speak Ebonics, this article does

Ain't · Information technology · Linguistics · Political science · Law · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

• Racist Reporting During Reconstruction

  Open Access•Cal M Logue•Journal of Black Studies•1979

  Add to list

• English in Black and White

  Carol W Pfaff, Robbins Burling•Language•1975

  Add to list