Beginning of my Research Paper

For my research project I will be researching the history of Black English: the development from African people coming as slaves developed to the Black Freedom Movements (also known as the Civil Rights Movement) and the effect it has had on English studies in classrooms now. After the research I have done, I am in awe by the perseverance blacks have had to keep their native language, be able to go to school, be seen as equal, and still comes back to blacks trying to keep their native tongue. My most useful resource will be Vernacular Insurrection—a book—which goes into detail about black [an appositive to explain what book I will be using. Parenthetical dashes are used to show that it’s not necessary but it explains what my resource is] “Race, Protest, and the New Century in Composition-Literacies Studies” (cover) throughout the US and effect is has on classes in society today.

                What I have below are my notes from my 5 sources. It explains the facts that I think are important for my research paper and will help me later to have them set up this way. With the notes I have so far (I haven’t written specific notes for the last two) do you think they will be helpful for my paper? Does my paper seem like it has a distinct order and will be a useful thing to research for my future teaching?

Notes from Sources:

·         Vernacular Insurrections

o   1920’s student protest

§  Many black colleges held strict dress code and behavior codes

§  Black publications used to keep black communities informed

§  UNIA

·         Article 31:

o   Majority white teachers

o   Teach blacks to the inferior

·         Article 30

o   Education that is prejudice free

·         Article 49

o   Negro children be taught negro history

§  Fisk University

·         Chant “Before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave”

o   Prefer burial than the slavery of higher education learning

o   Spurred the protests in the ‘50s and ‘60s

§  New Literary Studies (NLS)

·         “…believe that power to black students will come from mimicking the grammar of standardized forms…substitute that belief…knowing anything substantial about the history and present reality of black students’” (32)

o   Emancipation movement

§  Shortened summer breaks

§  Choosing school over clothes or food

§  Asked to open earlier

§  Walked barefoot on ice

§  Not just students

§  Surprised by how fast slaves learned

o   Sipuel v. board of Regents of University of Oklahoma

§  Denied to university of Oklahoma because of race

§  Roped off section of state capital

§  Had 3 people come to teach her

o   Page 52

o   Many white teachers don’t understand how to put into effect STROL

o   Pedagogy is presented as black and white history—not one history

o   More white students than black (92)

o   STROL what not always used in the way it was supposed to

§  Or in a way that was beneficial

§  Would teach it offensively

·         Speak native tongue at a picnic

·         Must speak proper at a dinner setting

§  To use STROL we must know and understand the student (98)

·         BBC Full History http://www.pbs.org/beyondbrown/history/fullhistory.html

o   Goes over trials that were well known in the 1950’s and what happened

o   The Aftermath

§  The NAACP won

·         Brown V. Board

·         Revolutionized the courts, lawyers, and law under social justice

·         Smitherman

o   From Africa to the New World and into the Space Age

o   Black Dialect

§  Africanized form of English

§  Two dimensional

·         Language and style

§  African slaves

·         Developed pidgin

·         Evolved into a creole

·         Different African tribes

o   Ibo ,Yoruba, Hausa

§  Status depended on use of white English

·         Frederick Douglas

§  Gullah People

·         South Carolina and Georgia

§  Contemporary Black English looks back to an African Linguistic tradition

·         Ebonics and the danger of racial politics: a socialist viewpoint

o   http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1997/04/ebon-a21.html

·         Insurrections: approaches to resistance in Composition Studies

o   http://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/journals/composition-studies/docs/bookreviews/32-2/unger.pdf

Blog 5

In the article written by Smitherman, Chapter 1 “From Africa to the New World and into the Space Age”, it explained Black English and how it started and why it is still used today. When I was reading this article what stood out was the reason behind why some of the words that are used are in a particular order: it’s the correct order for their native tongue. An example that was given was from Smitherman’s own classroom. She explained that she had a German student and when he quoted Patrick Henry’s famous quote he wrote, “Give me the liberty or the death”. Although this was incorrect for Standard English, in his native tongue that is correct. [Complex sentence: dependent clause first followed by comma and the independent clause to emphasize the idea of student’s right to their own language concept] This is similar to Black English. In Black English if someone was to say “He tell me he God,” this is not incorrect. It is for Standard English… but for Black English this stems from the same structure as West African.

Understanding people’s backgrounds is crucial while teaching. For students that speak a different language at home, being told at school that that language is totally and completely incorrect is hurtful: The language that their mom or dad or grandma or grandpa use. Although it is easy to tell your students that what they are doing is wrong, it is more beneficial to them to not shut down their native tongue. As a teacher it is better to show them different ways in which they can use Standard English and guide them through lessons you give the class, but with some students they will go back to their native tongue—and that’s okay. With some of the things that are written, and English teacher still understands what they are trying to say. With Black English slaves were not taught how to use English, this led to them hypercorrecting their language: they would say one man, two mans instead of saying two men for the plural of man. [A colon that gives examples of the hypercorrection for people who speak Black English].

The reading I did by Smitherman correlates with the Tea Part exercise we did the other day in that the black community strives to keep their native tongue. For some, if someone uses white English is looked down upon to use, but they also like speaking in the tongue of what they grew up using and hearing. This is similar to the story I had at the tea party. At the tea party I had John Rickford, a man who strived to keep Ebonics [complex sentence with a relative clause: it relates back to which specific man, John Rockford] (the main language of some African American students) alive and to make sure people were not ashamed of using their native tongue. This is similar to Smitherman’s piece because even though contemporary African linguistic has changed over time to become Black English, it still keeps similar aspects of African linguistics alive.

After reading this article I am planning on digging deeper into Black English for my research project. Black English is a language that teachers all over the United States come in contact with and teachers should know how to go about it. Specifically, I want to know more about the hypercorrection that is done and how I can teach these students without forcing the idea that Standard English is the one and only form of English that is allowed.