What does

1
What does Non Standard English mean?

• According to Wolfram Et Schilling-Estes,
  Vernacular or nonstandard varieties are those
  varieties of a language that are not classified
  as standard dialects (305).

2
What is standard English?

• According to Wolfram Et Schilling-Estes, the
  standard is the language variety associated with
  middle-class, educated, native speakers of the
  region (305).

3
What is a dialect?

• According to Wolfram Et Schiling-Estes, A
  dialect is a variety of the language associated
  with a particular regional or social group,
  everyone speaks a dialect (305).
• Dialects vary in structure (sound, vocabulary,
  grammar, and social conventions for structuring
  conversations) on the basis of the speakers
  age, socioeconomic status, gender, ethnic group
  membership, and geographic region (305).

4
What is AAVE?

• Its an acronym for African American Vernacular
  English.
• Vernacular or nonstandard varieties are those
  varieties of a language that are not classified
  as standard dialects (305).
• They contain socially stigmatized features such
  as the so called English double negative I aint
  got none or irregular verb forms I seen it
  (305).

5
What is Code-Switching?

• To codeswitch is to choose the pattern of
  language appriate to the context chosen by any
  given-individual to fit the appropriate time,
  place, audience, and communicative purpose, i.e.
  way one speaks at home, office, hospital,
  marketplace.

6
Linguistics News

• From the N.F.H.A (Nation Fair Housing Alliance)
  Press Release
• N.F.H.A. conducted tests over the telephone to
  determine what both African American and White
  home seekers were told about unit availability,
  rent, discounts and other terms and conditions of
  apartment leasing (293).

7

• In 66 percent of these tests 43 of 65
  instances- White callers were favored over
  African-American callers.
• African-American callers did not provide ethnic
  or racial information during phone calls.
• The N.F.H.A. tests show a correlation between the
  dialect of African-Americans and discrimination
  on the part of the real estate industry.

8
AAVE Facts

• AAVE is a dialect that is spoken by
  African-American across the US
• A.A.V.E follows a highly structured grammar
  system.
• It not lazy English, according to Linguist John
  Rickford.
• Speakers of AAVE often codeswitch and are
  considered bilingual.

9
In the classroom

• An important quote for all teachers to remember
• It can be very damaging human experience for an
  AAVE-speaking child to learn mainstream American
  English while the teacher dismisses AAVE as
  broken or error-filled (Wolfram, 1999, p.78).
  Codeswitching Tools of Language and culture
  Transform the Dialectally Diverse Classroom
  Swords, Rachel.

10
What can be done?

• Help students move between the two language
  systems by teaching students to codeswitch. In
  this way, you are empowering your students and
  showing them how to use the tools they already
  possess.
• As an educator, holding up Standard English as
  the right language and AAVE as the inferior or
  wrong can negatively impact students.
• Teaching AAVE students the grammar, structure,
  and history of AAVE can evoke pride in their
  language, which can cause increase in school
  performance.