African American English Language

Sonia Sanchez wrote in her collections of poems It’s A New Day, “We gon be some beautiful/ black/ women gon move like the queens we gon be full”(Sanchez,17). Like this example, Sanchez often writes in African American English. African American English (AAE) is commonly referred to as Ebonics, as well as black speech, black vernacular, and several other phrases. According to William Labov, “This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and it is more different from Standard English (SE) than any other dialect spoken in continental North America.” (Pullum, 39). African American English is in fact a form of Standard English (SE), and can be considered as the common dialect of African Americans. The historical phonological patterns of the dialect highlight the continuous intergenerational strength of the African American people. African American English is not the only dialectal form of English. Since the 17th century spread of the language throughout the world, English has developed into several forms such as British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, etc. (Zeigler and Osonubi, 590). The difference between the aforementioned forms of English and AAE, is that AAE is not a national dialect. AAE is a precious product of a people who mastered a language under the inhumane conditions of slavery. As a result of having to adopt a completely new and unfamiliar language quickly as a mechanism of survival, 15th and 16th century African slaves developed a pidgin that continues to persist within the present Black community. A pidgin language possesses syntactic, grammatical, and phonological rules while ridding itself of the superficial aspects of language (Dillard,54). According to Zeigler and Sonubi, African American English is an example of decreolization, a creole language that has moved away from it’s original form towards the linguistic patterns of the majority language (592). African American English is not nearly as widely accepted as other national varieties of English are. This decreolization is a result of the general disapproval of the dialect and is evident in the frequency of code switching that is present among AAE speakers. According to Gumbs, code switching (the ability to switch back and forth between dialects depending on the particular setting) is an essential tool for African Americans (Gumbs,1). However, this tool is not always easily developed by children, causing young speakers of AAE to have a difficult time adapting to the dialectal differences present in the school system. Furthermore, very minimal attention and recognition is given to subject of young speakers of AAE being expected to excel in the reading, writing, and comprehension of a dialect that possess grammatical and syntactical patterns that they are often unfamiliar with. Because the American education system does not possess an adequate awareness of African American English, coursework is not altered to support the dialectal difference of AAE speakers. Thus, Standard English is not properly introduced to children whose primary dialect is AAE, causing a negative impact on their learning experience. Therefore, the education system needs to be revised to include a mandatory consideration of the effect that dialectal differences has on the learning …show more content…
Although this is a strict matter of ethics among Speech Pathologists, it is unfornutate that the same position is not expected across American education systems. It is essential that educators are knowledgeable on the subject of African American English in order to allow their students of African American descent to be able to learn in an environment where their speech is positively perceived. It is also important that beyond the classroom and in the work setting particularly, Americans begin to accept AAE as a dialect and not discriminate against those who primarily speak …show more content…
In the process of mastering Standard English, it is important that AAE is still embraced in the school system, especially in a setting where AAE is the primary dialect. Educators should encourage speakers of AAE’s ability to code switch. As it is for many, code switching should not be a process that does not require conscious awareness. Students should be able to distinguish the differences between AAE and SE, in order to be fully aware of which dialect they are using. Such an awareness will prevent students from allowing their use of AAE to cause them to make mistakes concerning assignments and evaluations that require the use of