Transcript Language, Literacy, and Linguistic Differences: The case

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‫אופן הציטוט המומלץ מחמרי יום העיון‪:‬‬
‫שם המרצה‪ ,‬שנה‪ ,‬שם ההרצאה‪ ,‬הוצג ביום עיון בנושא‬
‫"בין הלשון המדוברת ללשון הכתובה‪ ,‬השלכות על רכישת האוריינות בקרב דוברי ערבית כשפת אם"‪ ,‬היזמה למחקר יישומי בחינוך‪,‬‬
‫האקדמיה הלאומית הישראלית למדעים‪.‬‬
Language, Literacy, and
Linguistic Differences:
The case of African
American English
Julie A. Washington
University of Wisconsin-Madison
February 21, 2008
Presented in Van Leer, Jerusalem
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A systematic, rule-governed variation of
English
Used by most African Americans in the United
States
Rooted in slavery
Developed as an oral language with no
written counterpart
A low prestige dialect whose legitimacy is still
debated in some circles
African American English
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Considered by many to be a poor
reproduction of Standard English
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Linguists challenged this view and
changed the perception of dialect in
academic circles by carefully
documenting the rules and regularities
that characterize this linguistic system.
African American English
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Zero Possessive
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I ride in my brother
car
And then he fix__ the
food
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Zero Past Tense
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Zero Plural
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A girl puttin’ some
glass_ on the table.
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Third person singular
-s
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Sometimes she
wear__ a baseball
cap.
AAE adds and deletes bound
morphemes
Deletion of the
copula/auxiliary
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He __ runnin’ fast
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He __ hungry.
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Subject-Verb
Agreement
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They was lookin’ for the
big dog.
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Habitual be
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He be gettin’ some ice
cream
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Remote past been
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I been knowin’ how to
swim.
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Transformations of the main verb
or verb phrase
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Undifferentiated
pronoun case
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Them pullin’ them
up the hill.”
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Regularized
reflexive
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Appositive Pronoun
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He hurt hisself
when he fell off his
bike
My mama she took
me to the movies
Pronominal Differences
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Fitna/sposeta/bouta
(communicates
imminent action
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Multiple negation
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Double modal
“Other”
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I’m fitna go outside.
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I’m bouta ride my
bike)
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He ain’t never got
no candy no how.
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I’m am going to see
if I can go.
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f /θ , v/ð and t/ θ
in intervocalic and
postvocalic
positions
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Wif/with;
bave/bathe;
wit/with
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d/ð in prevocalic
positions
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Dis/this; dem/them
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Consonant cluster
reduction
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Col-/cold
The Sound System also is affected
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The history of AAE is critically important to
consider:
◦ It evolved from slavery;
◦ Represents a “creolization” of English that developed to
allow slaves from different African countries to
communicate with each other;
◦ Was/is considered a simplification/poor reproduction of
English grammar;
◦ Consequently, AAE has had little prestige as a dialect of
English – it is associated with underemployment,
oppression, and undereducation because it is considered
by many to represent ignorance and poverty,
encouraging discrimination against its users.
HISTORY OF AAE
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This low prestige position has had a
significant impact on repeated attempts to
introduce AAE into schools and has
negatively impacted teacher’s and
society’s expectations of African American
children.
◦ Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School
Children et al. v. Ann Arbor School District,
1979;
◦ Ebonics Controversy, 1996
History of AAE
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Linguistic scholars (Walt Wolfram, William
Labov, Roger Shuy, Joan Baratz, and
Ralph Fasold) demonstrated that AAE is a
legitimate dialect of English rather than a
deficient form of it.
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After considerable debate, most University
professors and other researchers were
convinced by the scientific evidence.
History of AAE
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However… it has not been so easy to
convince the education establishment.
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An early attempt to introduce dialect into
the educational system occurred in the
form of dialect readers.
AAE and Education
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Dialect readers were reading texts/story
books that were written in AAE and were
designed to be used as a way to use the
child’s community language, AAE, as a
way to improve reading instruction by
beginning where the child was
linguistically and progressing toward use
of Standard American English (SAE).
African American English and
Education
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1a) Now there was a man of the Pharisees,
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This
man came to Jesus by night and said to him,
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come
from God; for no one can do these signs that
you do, unless God is with him."
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Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see
the kingdom of God." (SE, Revised Standard
Version, p. 149)
Dialect Readers
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(1b) It was a man named Nicodemus. He was
a leader of the Jews. This man, he come to
Jesus in the night and say, "Rabbi, we know
you a teacher that come from God, cause
can't nobody do the things you be doing 'cept
he got God with him."
Jesus, he tell him say, "This ain't no jive, if a
man ain't born over again, ain' no way he
gonna get to know God." (AAVE version, p.
150)
Dialect Readers
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These readers were a resounding failure:
1.
AAE is a dialect that developed in the
oral rather than the written domain.
Accordingly, the rules for inclusion and
exclusion of dialect features are
governed largely by the conversational
context.
Dialect Readers
These rules were not well understood at
the time that dialect readers were
developed and so the readers were stilted
and “unauthentic” in their presentation of
dialect. Neither teachers, nor students
liked them.
 More important, research suggested that
while they made students feel good about
having books that validated there
community language, they were not
successful for helping students move
toward standard classroom language
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Dialect Readers
2.
The educational community was
outraged that this “poor English” would
be used in books and classrooms. It still
was widely believed outside of
universities that the dialect was an
impoverished form of English that should
not be perpetuated by schools.
Dialect Readers
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Nationally, this continues to be the prevailing
view of dialect use in classrooms. It is in our
school districts and universities where these
views are changing.
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However…. teachers and parents are
becoming more open to considering the role
of dialect in education as the national
spotlight has focused on the gap in
achievement between African American and
White children
AAE and Education
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There is a gap in achievement between
African American children and their peers
that has been longstanding and
intractable. The gap in reading
achievement has been of particular
concern because reading undergirds all
academic subjects, including
mathematics, science, language arts, and
social studies.
The Achievement Gap
Preschool Achievement Gap
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In 2003 only 12% of African American 4th
graders reached the “proficient” levels on
the National Assement of Educational
Progress (NAEP) and 61% did not reach
‘basic’ levels.
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By 8th grade only 7% reached proficient
levels (Education Trust, 2003).
The Achievement Gap
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AAE represents an inherent mismatch
between the language that most African
American children learn to speak in their
homes and that which they will encounter
in schools.
The Achievement Gap
Performance of 65 typically developing 2nd
through 5th graders in an Urban community:
13 2nd graders
27 3rd graders
11 4th graders
14 5th graders
32 boys and 33 girls
30% overall were low income
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Gray Oral Reading Test-3 (GORT-3)
Dialectal Variation and
Literacy Skills
GORT-3:
 13 passages consisting of one topic
centered paragraph;
 Passages vary in length, syntactic
complexity, and vocabulary difficulty as
test progresses;
 Appropriate for children 7:0 – 18:11 years
of age;
Dialectal Variation and
Literacy Skills
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Scoring results in a raw score, SS, AE,
and %iles;
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Assesses students’ reading fluency (rate
and accuracy), and comprehension
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Rate and Accuracy result in Passage
Score; there is a Comprehension Score;
and an Oral Reading Quotient (ORQ)
which combines the Fluency &
Comprehension component.
Dialectal Variation and Literacy
Skills
We scored Variations from Print as
miscues or AAE;
 9 types of miscues ranging from
substitutions of words with similar
functions (pronoun/pronoun) to selfcorrections, to omission of words from the
passage;
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Dialectal Variation and Literacy
Skills
Self corrections were examined further for
their relationship to AAE
 Passages were scored twice:
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◦ once to identify all variations from print and,
◦ then to identify variations that were consistent
with AAE
Dialectal Variation and Literacy
Skills
RESULTS
60/65 students (92%) used AAE during
oral reading;
 No statistically significant gender or SES
differences in scoring using either
published or AAE scoring credits
 GORT-3 standard scores control for grade,
so no systematic variation.
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Dialectal Variation and Literacy
Skills
Of 1,740 variations from print, 21% could
be characterized as AAE features
 Low, negative correlation between overall
use of dialect and Accuracy (r = -.35, p =
.006), and Rate (r = -.26, p = .04)
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That is, as use of AAE increased, rate and
accuracy decreased.
Dialectal Variation and Literacy
Skills
CONCLUSIONS
 GORT-3 was normally distributed, and
appears appropriate for use with AA
children;
 AAE is produced while reading SAE texts
aloud;
 Some students appeared to improve SAE
accuracy in a trade-off with rate
Dialectal Variation and Literacy
Skills
Dialect Density during Reading
(Craig, Thompson, Washington &
Potter, 2004)
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A dialect shift occurred at 3rd grade,
reducing feature production from 1
feature per every approximately 20 words
to 1 feature for every approximately 50
words
AAE and Literacy
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African American students use AAE in
writing if they use it in oral language
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African American students who can write in
SAE can also speak SAE
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Writing is both a bridge and a mirror into
code-switching with African American
students
What about writing?
October 12, 2007
Writing Journal
My Mom
One day me and my mom was(were) at home because we was(were)
about to go. I went outside. I was waiting. I open(ed) the garage
and get(got) my bike out. I went ride?? for a minite(minute) and
nobody was out. So I went back inside and went to my mom(‘s)
room and she was watching TV and I tune(d) off to TV and
tooed(told) my mom to stop watching TV. So we had play(ed) a
game call lonede. My mom had mast up 3 time(s) on the game and
she got it write. Then we went to the store. I had buy(bought) some
chips, candy and a juice.
3rd grade Writing sample: unedited
Dear, cafeteria manager
I pay two dollars and fifty cent(s) every day, and I want my
lunch to be good if it cost(s) so much. The lunch makes my
stomach hurt, and I have no energy after I am done eating
lunch. Three thing(s) I think we should eat at lunch is(are)…
#1 FRUIT fruit is healthy, and taste(s) better than the food we
eat in are(our) lunch. We have some fruit in are(our) lunch,
but we don’t have enough. We have peaches and oranges,
but we don’t have fruit like apples, bananas, or cherries.
Everybody needs more than two varieties of fruit.
#2 DRINKS we should have different varieties to dring. All we
have to drink is plain or chocolate mile. Some times I want
bottle(d) water or kool-aid. Some times the milk is spoiled to.
If we had orange juice or something more people would eat
lunch.
7th grade Writing Sample: third
and final edited version
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At school entry, LSES preschoolers who
were the heaviest feature producers, were
also producing the most advanced syntax
and semantics
Student AAE and Linguistic Skills
(Craig & Washington, 1994, 1995)
Student AAE and Linguistic Skills
(Craig & Washington, 1994, 1995)
30
25
20
%AAE
%Csyn
15
10
5
0
High
Mod
Low
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This advantage disappears almost
immediately after children enter school.
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Students who have not learned to use the
school language code by the end of third
grade are one or more grade levels
behind by the time they get to 4th or 5th
grade!
AAE and Reading Achievement
Step One: Buy In!
 Teachers receive on going professional
development designed to familiarize them
with dialectal variations.
 An important focus is agreement on the
need for teaching children to use the
standard classroom code
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The Future for AAE Speakers:
Code-switching in the Classroom
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Language is an ethnic and peer identity
issue!
Step Two: With older children – Buy In!
The goal is to have teachers and students
recognize that these are cultural language
forms and are to be respected. Research
demonstrates that when teachers are
familiarized with AAE features that they are
more sensitive and effective in their approach
to teaching SAE.
The Future for AAE Speakers:
Code-switching in the Classroom
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Step Three: Teachers make an explicit
distinction between “school language” and
“home language” during instruction and when
referencing the dialect.
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In reading, writing, and oral language a
contrastive approach is used to move the
students toward use of the standard
classroom language code.
**Improves students meta-awareness**
The Future for AAE Speakers:
Code-switching in the Classroom
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Contrastive Analysis:
◦ Orally: Modeling, expansion, elicited imitation
◦ Writing: Encourage student writing. Where
dialect occurs, write standard sentence above
or below and discuss differences. When
students’ become more familiar with standard
forms, they will change them independently;
◦ Reading: Oral reading in small groups where
teachers can guide decoding of “every word
and every sound.”
The Future for AAE Speakers:
Code-switching in the Classroom
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Students, teachers, and administrators
have to develop a common vocabulary
and expectations for code-switching.
Students become “partners” in codeswitching instruction.
The Future for AAE Speakers:
Code-switching in the Classroom
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Nationally, there is low tolerance for
including “heritage languages” in
instructional contexts, but locally teachers
and administrators are beginning to
acknowledge the value of using the child’s
community language to inform
instruction.
Conclusions
Reading is essentially a language skill.
Engaging the student linguistically is
necessary for literacy to develop as
expected.
 Students who use languages or dialects
that differ from the school language or
dialect are disadvantaged from the outset.
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Conclusions
Identifying and acknowledging the role of
the home language is critical if progress is
to be made toward improvement of poor
reading performance.
 Research provides the information that
teachers and other practitioners need to
make informed decisions about how to
proceed, what to target, and when to
begin.
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Conclusions
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“…In order to bring (African Americans)
into the mainstream of American society,
schools must take into account the
existence of a ''home language'' if it is
different from standard English.”
-Federal District Judge Charles W. Joiner
(The Ann Arbor Black English decision, 1979)
Conclusions