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Introduction
The diversity of students in the elementary classroom posits concerns about providing instruction to embrace multiculturalism. Teaching standard American English takes precedence, and teachers should promote this way of African American students acquiring the language skills. Nonetheless, teachers should recognize their young students’ language peculiarities of Ebonics despite the negative connotations attached to it. Specifically, many people interpret Ebonics disapprovingly due to a corrupt form of English (Ramirez, Wiley, Klerk, Lee, & Wright, 2005, p. 41). This is the reason why both school teachers and students face educational challenges. In this respect researchers have been debating if Ebonics is really a language, as differing viewpoints regard it as broken English, an English dialect belonging to African Americans or a separate language (Fasold, 2005, p. 702). These debates do not solve the problems that young learners encounter in the school environment. Treating Ebonics as a variety of the English language explains the importance of cultural acceptance within the classroom, whereas its employing for academic purposes poses an obstacle to learning, which should be considered as a way to close the achievement gap for African American learners.
Using Ebonics in the Elementary Education
The Concept of Ebo of children's vocabulary devenics
The concept of Ebonics is linked to Dr. Robert Williams who invented the term Ebonics, and it was associated with psychological testing. Earlier, he had developed the Black Intelligence Test for Cultural Homogeneity as a standardized test in favor of African Americans (Ramirez et al., 2005, p. 44). The term Ebonics was coined at a conference concerned with the cognitive and language development of black children in 1973 (Messier, 2012, p. 2). The experts aimed to describe African Americans’ informal speech on the grounds of the psychological establishment as a barrier to American communication (Collins, 2008, p. 2) and also to provide them with “the ability to trace ancestral linguistic and cultural roots” (Finegan & Rickford, 2004, p. 308).
Ebonics unifies African American people and is separate from the European languages with which it shares “most of the vocabulary and with which they may be mutually intelligible” (Fasold, 2005, p. 699). Duncan (2004) refers to Ebonics as the African linguistic features in black speech that distinguish it from other language varieties in the United States (p. 190). Ebonics is mainly characterized as a simplified and corrupted form approximated to standard American English. In this regard the uneducated and disadvantaged are considered to speak Ebonics. These features are also inherent to the African American child’s mother tongue. In this respect Ebonics as a non-standard form of English can become an obstacle to school success.
The 1996 Ebonics resolution in Oakland, California, faced the issue of schools’ response to the form of English, and the concept of Ebonics cast doubt on the language variety as seen by schools and the American society. In particular, the School Board advocated for Ebonics as a separate language, so they insisted on imparting school instruction in the learners’ primary language, which assisted in acquiring English language skills (Baron, 2010, p. 2). The resolution explained that Ebonics was the first language of African American students, hence the development of school programs should be based on recognizing the existence of Ebonics as the primary language in the students’ domestic and social lives (Messier, 2012, p. 1). This trend caused a national controversy, since maintaining Ebonics to acquire English proved to be questionable.
The Cultural Heritage of Ebonics in Class
Treating Ebonics as a second language sets concerns about enhancing elementary school instruction geared towards African American children. Anthony and Kritsonis (2006) emphasize the necessity to educate them “in a way that is conducive to their educational needs” (p. 1). The need highlights major changes in teacher training programs with a focus on recognizing the humanity of the learners. Moreover, the curriculum must take into account language differences which limit the students’ ability to connect with the content and accept the new information as their own (Wilson, 2008, pp. 67-68). These issues should close the educational gap in elementary school, which stresses better conditions for the children to be adequately prepared for future life.
Under the Oakland resolution, it was needed to educate teachers to lead “students from Ebonics toward Standard English” (Baron, 2010, p. 3). Schools could facilitate the effective teaching while preserving the integrity of their indigenous language system (Edgerson, 2006-2007, p. 44). Messier (2012) claimed it could be useful “to bridge the gap between the students’ home language and Standard English” (p. 5). Yet, objections to promoting Ebonics were supported by similarity, immersion, ghettoization, and legitimacy and appropriateness (pp. 7-8).
In the modern context, development of the learners’ language skills relies on different factors, and teachers must consider them all, since they may impact the children’s performance. With regard to disparities in the socioeconomic status, teachers must make an effort to identify the possible gap in the learners’ language skills and help them mitigate the risks associated with reduced oral language skills. Besides, the race and culture question must influence teachers’ instruction, as their “expectations of language use and patterns may differ from what the child’s cultural background has supported” (Carson, 2009-2010, p. 19). Another factor relates to the caregiver’s role in the learners’ attaining language skills. For instance, the African American culture can promote the idea of children learning to talk, not adults teaching them to talk.
The African cultural heritage of Ebonics is imperative in the classroom. The teaching staff need to acknowledge understanding the cultures to help students feel connected with education. “Each student brings his or her home culture of language, impression, confidence, interpretation, and previous experience into the classroom” (Wilson, 2008, p. 65). Teachers are likely to assist the learners to enhance their performance in class if the former realize the cultural issues typical of African American children and incorporate the differences in the classroom.
The young learners who communicate mostly in Ebonics in the classroom are unlikely to participate in oral language activities, since they may feel to be constantly corrected to use Standard English. Teachers should pay close attention to the context of the activity rather than the language use. In a culturally diverse classroom environment, teachers should not suggest that Ebonics be a wrong language, but explain when Standard English should be used on a proficient level. According to Wilson (2008), each student must understand language from a trilingualism perspective in order to be successful in the current world. Firstly, their home dialect brings the basis of their upbringing and maintains communication within their culture. Secondly, a formal type of English indicates their level of education which is sustained in media sources and within families. Lastly, a professional English language is typical of any individual profession and is learned in college or on the job in order to succeed in the business environment (p. 68).
Academic Challenges Linked to Ebonics
Academic challenges are one of the reasons why children of color experience difficulties in class. They arise from divergence of instruction delivered to African American students, which actually results in students not fully comprehending the school subjects. Anthony and Kritsonis (2006) assert that “some teachers are partially to blame for the low level performance of African American students” (p. 4). This opinion is supported by teachers’ expectations to instruct learners who “know a certain amount of information by the time they reach their specific grades” (Anthony & Kritsonis, 2006, p. 4). Some teachers are unaware of techniques how to deal with specific language skills produced by children of color. Dudley-Marling (2007) exemplifies differences in the skills between the learners and their white peers, and states that the differences “persisted after children entered school and were strongly predictive of children’s vocabulary development and reading comprehension in third grade” (p. 4). Baron (2010) emphasizes treating “the language of black children as little more than ‘bad English’ in need of correction” (p. 1).
Another academic challenge deals with low teacher expectations which translate into the young learners’ low school achievements. The school environment can label the students, whose cultural language is Ebonics, as deficient. African Americans often face challenges in class by being met with “negative attitudes, doubtful expressions, and lack of acceptance” (Wilson, 2008, p. 66). Moreover, the classmates’ attitudes towards the learners pose additional problems. As a result, the learners’ behavioral problems are connected to the imposed language barrier. These examples indicate teachers’ inability to accept the students’ cultural background and mark the learners as underachievers. Diminishing primarily the qualities of African American children enables school administration to place the learners in Special Education classes. The classroom setting which limits language development and acceptance a characterized by the fact that most students “rarely verbalize, but when students of color are able to express their thoughts, their language is corrected, with limited attempts to understand their responses” (Wilson, 2008, p. 67).
Additionally, societal pressures do not allow the students progress academically, since “factors such as drugs, poverty, and gangs are primary in the African American community” (Anthony & Kritsonis, 2006, p. 3). As a result, teachers may feel annoyed at the students’ disruptive behaviors in the classroom. Also, parents’ interaction with the child contributes to his or her readiness for school in case of language skills (Dudley-Marling, 2007, p. 6). In particular, parents’ literacy experiences impact the child’s language skills, which may put him or her at a relative disadvantage. These situations are explained by the students learning differently from American peers, and the pressures do not contribute to attaining academic achievements.
Implications
Concerns about Ebonics used by African American children in elementary education posit implications for teachers. There should not be any feeling of the learners being defective and thus a sense of withdrawal from classroom situations and learning (Wilson, 2008, p. 67). Firstly, despite the myths found in the society, including K-12 education and teacher education (Ramirez et al., 2005, p. 96), awareness that “the school language standard often differs from conversational and written norms outside the classroom” (Baron, 2010, p. 5) should be on a top list. Furthermore, teachers must realize that home-based language experiences affect language and literacy skills. In this respect “teachers can help develop the skills students need to become successful readers” (Carson, 2009-2010, p. 21). Also, the young learners demand sufficient support, as “they should be given the same educational considerations as other non-English speaking students” (Anthony & Kritsonis, 2006, p. 4). Therefore, it is crucial that a child lives in a setting where language development is supported and nurtured (Carson, 2009-2010, p. 20).
The second implication relates to the cultural heritage of Ebonics. The teaching staff must endeavor to recognize African American students’ backgrounds and relate the new knowledge to culture and community. Collins (2008) supports the idea about the tangible importance of Ebonics is maintained through expressive language experience and an understanding of their cultural past (p. 3). According to Wilson (2008), “language defines individuals and expresses the culture they were exposed to as a child” (p. 65). Incorporation of culture creates a multicultural learning environment which accepts all children and minds their disparities. As such, using the cultural language enables African Americans to express themselves.
As a result, “the emotional, social, and academic experiences of the African American child during the early years are manifest in adolescence and adulthood” (Collins, 2008, p. 8). The positive experiences stress that the young learners are likely to be “knowledgeable of the traditional language systems of the African American community and to use these systems in the proper contexts” (Edgerson, 2006-2007, p. 45). Using the three types of English language – their home dialect, a formal type of English and a professional English language – the students can build a high self-esteem which encourages further learning (Wilson, 2008, p. 68).
Conclusion
The concept of Ebonics highlights unification of African American people, which imposed the 1996 Ebonics resolution in Oakland to promote it as a separate language to master English. Still, it should be regarded as a language variety to promote its cultural heritage in the classroom. In this respect, teachers must face the young learners’ educational needs in order to lead them toward Standard English. In addition, teachers must consider the factors of the socioeconomic status, race and culture, and the caregiver’s role in order to encourage the African cultural heritage of Ebonics. Paying close attention to the context of the class activity rather than the language use is also advantageous. On the other hand, academic challenges linked to Ebonics arise from divergence of instruction delivered to the young students, since some teachers are unaware of techniques how to deal with specific language skills. Furthermore, low teacher expectations, alongside with societal pressure, may translate into the learners’ low school achievements. All the things considered, closing the achievement gap for African American learners is associated with the young students not feeling defective as well as teachers realizing that home-based language experiences affect language and literacy skills. Another implication deals with recognizing African American students’ backgrounds.
References
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