[ Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
Today's debate was really interesting but after listening to both sides I personally have to side with the pro side. I really liked the statement that the pro side said when they compared the ways in which Ebonics can be considered to be an "immigrant" language. This is true, African Americans have been in this country probably longer than many other ethnicities and yet Ebonics is considered to be similar to a language that an immigrant speaks. Linguisticly looking at Ebonics it is a standard dialect of English. It isn't an African language, and it isn't considered a pigeon or creol language. It is a standard dialect of English. This means that it has a complex grammar, syntactic structues that are always present, and its own phonological rules. Therefore why should we discredit Ebonics? It is a real language and has just as much right to be in a classroom as Spanish or any other language does. I understand that Ebonics could never replace the use of Standard English in the classroom, but it should be recognized and considered to be a valid language. Another note that the pro team argued is that students often excel more when they can build off of there home langauge. I really believe that this is a valid point. If a teacher is explaining to a student how Standard English is spoken referring to Ebonics than more progress will be made. If a teacher spends all of their time correcting the students who speak in Ebonics they are probably confusing them more than helping them learn. Therefore there needs to be a way in which Ebonics can be recognized in a classroom in order to help emphasize the importance of Standard English. Obviously all students should learn standard English because in our society today standard English is the language of power and what is recognized as successful in our society. Therefore all students should have the chance to have access to this power while still having knowledge of their home language. Overall I support the use of Ebonics as an aid to help African American students gain access to the language of power.