Ebonics and Education Essay

A Persuasive Research Paper on the Why Education Should coat Way for Ebonics All a person needs to do is turn on the television or browse the Internet to see the proof that in that location be very important changes in the baseball club. Among those changes is how the use of language increased and how its stamps control greatly grown. With much slang, dialects and language transformation and combinations, the number of languages completely over the world and not just in the United States, have significantly grown larger and bigger.However, the suspicion of whether this continuous dynamic change in languages is for the expose remains to be seen. This is because, though languages have changed and grown, problems ca employ by miscommunication and misunderstandings are still rampant and present. Although language and all its combinations with another(prenominal) languages aimed to bridge the gap between nations and cultures, unlike raft with different origins and speech are s till unable to bridge that gap. There are still many issues concerning the cropping up and usage of new languages. some common among those is the problem that languages which are combined or which undergo a linguistic blend tends to be disruptive of formal, gear up and grammatical language. A plain example would be those music videos which feature artists that combine and contract structure of words to suffer the song more likeable or even more attuned to the rhythm of the song. However, this has a negative effect as people, or so especially young adults and children, become familiar with such language usage to the point that they attempt to emulate them.Such line has long been the topic in educational boards and institutions of whether they should correct and put stop to such language usage or assist such exchange of words since clearly, the young are affected. In fact, Ebonics or cutting English or African American English has become such a heated topic when it was quite obvious that thither is a problem among the academics of African American students because they have such low grades and low public presentation levels that could be attributed to the usage of Ebonics.Many people sided against and for the encouragement of Ebonics. Study after study ensued to prove that Ebonics was an important and integral part of the many pupils and students since that is the language they actually use while others also discouraged its usage. Through this paper, it can be argued that Ebonics is not a mere slang which African American students can do with by and that it is not something which should be corrected just because it is seen as ungrammatical.Instead, what the educational boards and institutions should do is cater to their find outers and use Ebonics to implement knowledge transfer among their pupils and students and eventually make them learn and use measuring stick English. Ebonics is formally known as African American English or AAE according to th e Center for Applied Linguistics (n. p. ). It is a kindly of sociolect or social dialect where it is often used by people who are of African American origins in particular surroundings or situations.The deviation of Ebonics with American English is its structure wherein African dialects and sounds are combined, blended, mixed with American English. American English is also sometimes contracted with African dialects or sounds to be inserted within the contractions. Such example is presented by John R. Rickford in his discussion of Ebonics as presented in the Website of the Stanford University. In the example, Rickford uses a simple sentence which is grammatically correct I asked Alvin if he could go (n. p. ).He therefore conveys the example to a student known to use Ebonics and the student gives his own version of the sentence I as Alvin could hecould he go (Rickford, n. p. ). Ebonics is not the mere transformation of structure of words to ungrammatically correct versions. In fact , though not alto sustainher grammatically acceptable, Ebonics is still considered a structured and coherent dialect. As what the Center for Applied Linguistics or CAL states, AAE (or Ebonics) is a regular, systematic language variety that contrasts with other dialects in terms of its grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary (n.p. ). Thus, Ebonics is not wrong or incorrect, it is merely different and a contradiction with other languages, in this case, the language of American English or Standard English. The origin of Ebonics is unclear but the origins of wherefore it became a topic of heated arguments and debate is quite known. Because nations cater to other nations, and migration and immigration (and even simple leisure travel) are inevitable, it is also natural that the language which people of different cultures use would also be transferred and assimilated by other people with other languages.According to Ladonna Lewis Rushs argumentative paper on the Ebonics debate titled The Ebonics Debate, the origins of Ebonics can be explained by Smitherman who wrote in Talking and Testifyin Black English and the Black Experience that Black English contains elements of Standard English, elements of West African languages, and elements unique to African-Americans. The structure of speech in Ebonics can be study and related to African language structures as well as to the black experience in America. (as cited by Rush, n. p. )Thus, Ebonic came about because the African Americans needed the language which they could line up to and use while in America who used American English for their communication. Like what the CAL stated, Smitherman and Rush also believe that Ebonics is not mere slang which is have and used by African American music artists but it is considered as a distinct dialect all on its own. The concept of Ebonics must have been unknown to most people before the year 1996 but because of a certain state in America, Ebonics and everything related to the dial ect and term suddenly explode to the point that it became a topic of debate.According to Tracey L. Weldon in her write up titled Reflections on the Ebonics dispute which appeared in American Speech, the Oakland Unified School territorial dominion in California passed a resolution on the month of December year 2006 that recognized the legitimacy of Ebonics and it called for teachers in the district to be better better about the rules governing the variety (Ebonics) with the aim that the teachers would be able to improve the teaching of standard English to Ebonics let outers (275).The issue sparked up debate after debate because linguists approved the resolution stating it was correct and adequate while Ebonics speakers and family members of African American origins complained that it was an obvious tactic of discrimination and identification of who were the students that does not have the ability to speak the proper English (Weldon 276). Ebonics and the usage of the dialect is qu ite obvious in the society as it can be heard from people in most social gatherings, informal meetings and even in the media.According to Rickford, many terms and structures in Ebonics are used by common people because of what they have well-educated from rap, hip hop and other means of popular Black culture (n. p. ). As what Rickford uses to describe this massive usage of Ebonics in popular Black culture, it becomes an picture of youth culture itself wherein young African Americans are immediately identified as being users of Ebonics. Since Ebonics is a mere means of communication among African Americans, then it should not be a great deal of a problem.However, unfortunately, the usage of the sociolect has become increasingly an issue most especially in educational institutions wherein grammatically correct and linguistically sound structure and vocabulary should be used and encouraged. Rush points out the case why Ebonics has become a problem among pupils and students in schools and this is because they manage to have poor academic standing and it was revealed that because of this dialect that the students have such appalling results. Rush writes in her paper that language skills are right off related to achiever in academics (n. p. ).This is obviously true since language is used to communicate and interact with other people. Poor language skills or inability to recrudesce and understand the language would make it for ones self and for other people to have a clear conversation and communication. It is also Rush who pointed out that African American students have a high rate of being suspended (around 80%) and that the students are lagging behind in measures of academic success (n. p. ). There was also an article which appeared on NEA Today that interviewed Lisa Delpit who is a professor an author that focused on Ebonics.In the interview, Delpit mentioned the reason why Ebonics is important and why the resolution passed by the school district was commend able Most of the African-American children in Oakland were performing miserably. But one school, the Prescott School, consistently performed near the top of the district. Its students were all low-income African-American children. And it adopted a program called the Standard English Proficiency, which uses the childrens home language and culture to teach them Standard English. (17).If Ebonics will be used to relate to the students and easy pave their learning for Standard English, then there is a high possibility that African Americans percentage of academically challenged students would significantly decrease. The question then is how does one go on solving such problem to ensure a fool proof way of solving the issue? This of occupation lies with the educational board and teachers. Teachers in formal schools teach Standard English because it something which society and the rest of the English speakers use.There is no problem with using Ebonics if it is foreign professional and a cademic grounds it is after all part of the African American culture. However, Standard English should be the language that is encouraged by the teachers to be used by their students because it would help them in the long run. Based on different discussions on the resolution passed by the school district of Oakland, the debate on whether Ebonics should be studied by the districts teachers and used to pave the way to teach Standard English should not even be a topic of debate.This is because the debate started because of a mere misunderstanding about the resolution, another proof that language does not only bridge gaps it also creates them, when people power saw Standard English as the only form of English that linguists identified as proper English. Linguistically speaking, there is indeed a Standard English as what Weldon has stated but the term proper English is incorrect since there is no wrong or right English. If it can be remembered, Ebonics is even identified as being a dial ect that is structured thus, it is very much acceptable.In conclusion, the issue that Ebonics be used to gap and slowly push the learners toward Standard English (as aimed by the resolution) is created by the definition and need of the Standard English. Standard English is not the only English nor is it the only form of the language which is encouraged to be used instead, Standard English is something which is needed to make all forms of English languages coherent and uniform in the sense that there would be no linguistically and communicatively wrongly structured words.It is the same case of having a one school uniform designated to students of a school to identify who are the members of that school or the generally approved legal age for drinking or voting or driving. There is a common factor which envelopes the entities of a school, a state or a nation. Standard English therefore is needed by the Ebonics speakers if they are desirous of being successful in society which is also t he language used by the many. Ebonics is not slang, wrong nor should it be discouraged.However, the Ebonics speakers should be able to understand that learning the Standard English is important since it would make them socially adept at communicating with other people. With all the turmoil and misunderstandings that society is currently under, it needs all the unity and harmony it can geteven if it just comes from having a language they can all understand and speak. Works Cited A New Take on Ebonics and Teaching. NEA Today 17. 2 (1998) 17. academician Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 July 2010. Center for Applied Linguistics. 2010. Dialects African American English. Cal. org. Web. 26 July 2010. Rickford, John R. 1996. Ebonics Notes and Discussion. Stanford. edu. Web. 26 July 2010. Rush, Ladonna Lewis. The Ebonics Debate. Princeton. edu. College of Wooster. 1997. Web. 26 July 2010. Weldon, Tracey L. Reflections on the Ebonics Controversy. American Speech 75. 3 ( 2000) 275-277. Proje ct MUSE. Web. 26 July 2010.