Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

Strategies to help those who speak AAVE succeed

Key Characteristics of AAVE

Strategies to help those who speak AAVE succeed

To spotlight on specific cases where AAVE has a direct effect on a student’s success, I would like to focus on two students in the 7th grade, to whom I have taught Mathematics. In order to protect these students, I will refer to them as Student 1 and Student 2.

Student 1 is an average African American girl, who primarily uses AAVE when speaking among her friends and family.

Student 2 is an above-average academic AAVE speaking Latino male, who uses AAVE primarily with friends, as it is the social norm.

Key Characteristics of AAVE

STRATEGIES

According to sociolinguist Edward Finegan (2005), "Contact is an important concept in sociolinguistics — social contact and language contact. Language change spreads through networks of people who talk with one another. Tight-knit groups that keep to themselves tend not to promote change. Networks whose members also belong to other networks tend to promote change. "

This means to help these students they need social experiences with those who speak a more formal version of English. For this reason, cooperative learning can be a great tool.

According to Eastern Michigan University’s International Linguistics Community Online (n.d.), sociolinguistics takes a look at a culture’s overall use of a language, and how the use of the language affects its people. In the case of AAVE, the word “Ebonics” tends to have a negative tone.

This is because of its historic connection to slavery in America. Since those days are far in the past, it is now more accepted as AAVE, releasing the negative connotation Ebonics has in connection to its past.

Strategies to help those who speak AAVE succeed

According to PBS (2005), in the 70's African-American social psychologist, Dr. Robert Williams, created the term Ebonics by combining the words “ebony,” meaning black, with “phonics,” meaning sound of words to refer to “black sounds.”

He wanted to define the language they spoke as a dialect, rather than poor English.

Key Characteristics of AAVE

A pattern of the AAVE language is the inability to use the proper form of a verb, or any verb at all. As published by sociolinguist Edward Finegan (2005), “In grammar, the patterned absence of be in sentences such as He ugly and the absence of various inflectional suffixes in she go, the boy hat, or many time have probably differentiated black and white speech in some outlying Southern regions for as far back as we can project in the history of American English.”

Furthermore, using strategies also used in ELL programs have also been proven to aid in understanding of content outside of English Language Arts classes, such as Math. Please take note of the following example.

Conclusion

Examples of Strategies to use with AAVE speakers:

This is a valuable illustration of how AAVE presents struggles in not only Language Arts, but across the curriculum. For example, in Science, I currently see this with some of my students. Those like student 1 are highly aware of the Science content. They are able to participate fully in discussions in class, as well as create beautiful projects demonstrating their understanding of the content being taught. They are able to provided their classmates with insightful information about the content being taught.

It is when they are asked to take a written assessment similar to that of the standardized tests required by the state that they become unable to communicate knowledge.

For this reason, we need to give the students various means to show what they know, which brings us back to using strategies that reach the multiple intelligences and various learning types.

  • Use hands-on activities to teach content, where students can see the concepts without needing standard English (Metts, n.d.).

  • Read questions and standard English aloud, in digestible bites. Then allow short breaks to reflect on what is being asked (Jensen, 2005).
  • When necessary, questions can be reworded to aid in understanding.

  • Directions can be given in the form of pictures, rather than in Standard English alone (Metts, n.d.)

  • Scaffolding and the use of the Zone of Proximal Development towards the use of standard English can also be used (Tools of the Mind, 2014).
  • Using the 10-2 Rule and note taking can be used as a means of studying in students "own" language (Lichau-Shields, 2013).

Example continued:

Lastly, do not discriminate or pre-label those speaking with AAVE as unintelligent.

References

Student 1 was able to answer question one, but unable to answer question two. This is an example of how a student speaking AAVE struggles academically. She understands the math, but is unable to read and comprehend the question. When asked why she couldn’t complete the second question, Student 1replied, “Cuz I don’t get it. It don’t neven make no sense. Dey always be askin’ deze dumb questions.”

The question was restated aloud by the student next to her, “Da geyser explodes two times in a hour, how many times do da geyser explode in a week?” Once she heard in in a language that was familiar to her, she lit up, looked down at her paper, and wrote the following:

24

x 2

48

x 7

336 times

  • Eastern Michigan University’s International Linguistics Community Online. (n.d.). AAVE: African American Vernacular English. The Linguist List. Retrieved from http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/

  • Finegan, E. (2005). What is sociolinguistics? sociolinguistics basics. Do you speak American?. Macneil/Lehrer Productions. Retreived from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/

  • Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd Ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD

  • Lichau-Shields. (2013). The 10-2 rule [PDF]. Retrieved from http://cup.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-477925-dt-content-rid-12016772_1/courses/20151011014/resources/week4/w4%2010-2_Rule.pdf

  • Metts. (n.d). Mett's Modality Explinations, Retreived from http://cup.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-477923-dt-content-rid12017036_1/courses/20151011014/resources/week2/w2%20Auditory_Modality.pdf, http://cup.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-477923-dt-content-rid-12017036_1/courses/20151011014/resources/week2/w2%20Kinesthetic_Modality.pdf, http://cup.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-477923-dt-content-rid-12017036_1/courses/20151011014/resources/week2/w2%20Visual_Modality.pdf

  • PBS. (2005). American varieties: African American English, ebony + phonics. Retreived from http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/AAVE/worldscollide/

  • Rickford, J.. (2000). Linguistics, education and the Ebonics firestorm. Retreived from Gerorgetown University Press: http://staffwww.fullcoll.edu/dpeterson/courses/eng100/eng100sp08/rickford.pdf

  • Tools of the Mind. (2014). Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding. Retrieved from http://www.toolsofthemind.org/philosophy/scaffolding/

Example of

AAVE effecting

a students'

success:

Key Components of African American Vernacular English or AAVE:

Notice that standard English is used by the media, while AAVE is used by the young man.

Please enjoy this video example of AAVE in use and be warned of the language. Some may interpret this video as inappropriate.

In my experiences with Student 1, she has demonstrated a struggle in understanding the areas taught in Language Arts Literacy, such as reading and writing. This struggle carries over to Mathematics, as although we work primarily with numbers, it is also necessary for students to read and respond to open-ended word problems. When it comes to these problems, although she understands the content and is fully capable of completing the math, she is unable to do so. This is in direct relation to her misunderstanding what the question is asking, due to her inability to read and comprehend Standard English. Once the question is read aloud to her, and restated using language she understands, she is able to complete the math problem instantly.

An example of this was seen on October 28, 2010, when she was given the following Mathematics problems:

1. 210 x 422 x 2 = _______

2. Susanne and Johnny are at Yellowstone National Park. They ask the Park Ranger how often the geyser explodes, and the Park Ranger replies, “About twice every hour.” If there are 24 hours in one day, and 7 days in one week, how many times does the geyser explode each week?

Using the strategies discussed, AAVE speaking students can succeed.

Key Characteristics of AAVE

Before discussing AAVE’s effects on student success, one must first understand the language itself.

  • Many people do not recognize AAVE as a language.

  • Most Americans are familiar with its historic name, Ebonics, which in recent years has become accepted as African American Vernacular English. This is due to linguists recognizing it as a sociocultural form of the English language.
  • AAVE is most highly used by African Americans living in the South, and country-wide in inner cities where African Americans tend to have lower incomes, and therefore, minimal education backgrounds.

  • In many cases, children attending schools in these areas come into school at a young age, already speaking AAVE.

  • This is most likely due to it being the language spoken at home, passed down from generation to generation.

  • While it is a form of the English language, it breaks many of the rules of grammar for Standard English, which is taught in schools in America.
  • For this reason, many African American students struggle with the Standard English language, causing them to struggle both academically and in settings outside of their community where AAVE is accepted (J.R. Rickford, 1997).

African American Vernacular English:

Effects on Academics and Success of the

American Student

By Sara N. Henry

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi