When Geneva Smitherman was a freshman at Wayne State University in the 1950s, she failed a test that screened incoming education students for potential speech disorders and was referred to speech therapy.
The speech therapy class was made up primarily of people of color, including black students like Mr. Smitherman, who spoke in Black English, the language spoken by many black people across the country. The teaching assistant leading the class quickly realized that neither Mr. Smitherman nor most of the other students had the language problems tested for, such as stuttering. They just spoke differently, pronounced words opposite to standard American English, and used different phrases.
Mr. Smitherman was furious about being put in speech class, but he was used to being underestimated. As a child, her family were black Southerners who moved north to the Midwest, where good-paying jobs were plentiful, to escape Jim Crow laws. Ms. Smitherman said that when she moved north from Tennessee, she was in the third grade, even though she had already learned to read and school records indicated she was supposed to be in third grade. was transferred to second grade, she recalled.
“I just repeated what I had already learned,” she said.
After undergoing speech therapy, Smitherman devoted his career to teaching and researching sociolinguistics, specifically African American languages and their status in the nation. She is co-founder of the Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State University. Several professors have cited her as one of the foundational researchers on African American English and its use in schools. Mr. Smitherman was also a leading expert on federal litigation in Ann Arbor. The case centered on the treatment of black people who spoke English and learned to read and write.
As the nation debates how children learn to read and write, and state legislatures work to implement measures to promote the science of reading in schools, there are often overlooked aspects of teaching children to read and write. . It is a language spoken especially by many black students.
Embracing the languages some Black students speak could promote literacy, education leaders say. But other scholars believe that more work needs to be done to embrace Black English in the classroom, to teach speakers to read as they age, and to understand the most effective ways to ignite an enthusiasm for reading and literature. He says there are more.
According to scholars, Black English, or African American English, is the language spoken among black Americans. Smitherman said the language arose when Africans and Europeans interacted during the slave trade.
Raven Jones, an associate professor of teacher education at Michigan State University and co-founder of the Zuri Read Initiative, which promotes literacy throughout metro Detroit, says the word “yo” is another way of saying “hello.” This is an example of how to say it. Meaning “your” in African American English. Jones wants her future teachers to understand that there are many valid ways to speak, read, and express ideas, including in academic settings.
“I'm not saying you shouldn't bring a certain emphasis or skill set to these environments,” she says. “But they should also be representative of yourself.”
Ann Arbor schools were at the forefront of Black English debate
In the late 1970s, Ann Arbor schools were once at the center of a legal battle that began with literacy issues and turned into a lawsuit over Black English.
In July 1977, approximately a dozen black children attending Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School sued Ann Arbor Public Schools, accusing the district of providing an inadequate education. Although the school was predominantly white, the students who filed the lawsuit lived in public housing, and the lawsuit alleges that a higher percentage of students living in public housing developments had disabilities. He claimed to be classified as a student. It's not an appropriate name. Many of the students in suits had trouble reading.
As the case progressed, the judge limited the case to the language barrier issue. Lawyers for the Student Advocacy Center argued that the children did not have learning disabilities and spoke African American English, a language that the school's white teachers had difficulty understanding and accepting.
Smitherman, now a distinguished professor emeritus at Michigan State University, was selected as an expert on the case.
“Teachers' failure to legitimize language and children's corresponding negative attitudes toward language created negative expectations for children, which turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Smitherman wrote in 1981, looking back on the incident. “One of the important consequences was that children were not being taught to read.”
A federal district court judge ruled in July 1979 that the school district had discriminated against students because of language barriers. According to a Free Press article at the time, school districts were ordered to increase training for teachers who could understand Black English. Later, in 1997, the children and mothers involved in the incident expressed mixed feelings about the outcome and whether the training the teachers received had made a difference.
Still, the incident remains a milepost in the larger conversation about African American English in schools.
In 1980, Smitherman hosted a symposium at Wayne State University that drew 5,000 people, at which author and civil rights activist James Baldwin gave a speech on Black English, telling the audience, “All Americans are taught by the Negro language.'' They're speaking a modified version of English.” Black Americans. ” The symposium brought together Baldwin, attorneys in the case, and other education leaders to discuss the impact of the judge's ruling and the broader treatment of black students in reading instruction.
teaching african american english
Although scholars and advocates have said that African American English has not yet been fully accepted in the classroom, Smitherman and others argue that today's educators are He said he was optimistic they were doing a better job in responding. And research by dozens of linguists, many of them in Michigan, has contributed to our understanding of the nuances and details of language, including its role in classrooms and reading instruction.
Yolanda Holt, a sociolinguist and professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at East Carolina University, explains how educators can more effectively teach African American English-speaking students. stated that it is important to consciously involve community members in research on reading and language.
“All languages have value. If a child can communicate effectively, that's a good thing,” she said. “We want to engage children in reading and writing practices using the language they bring to school.”
Holt said African-American conversations about English often view it as a weakness that needs to be addressed in school, rather than an asset. And much of the extensive research and dialogue about how children learn to read and write, often referred to as the science of reading, ignores the science of how African American English speakers learn to read and write. Holt said.
One important nuance is how African American English speakers pronounce certain words, Holt explained. Words like “knob” are often pronounced the same way around the world, but the word “fire”, for example, may be pronounced differently by different children. African American English speakers might pronounce fire like “fee-ya.” Teachers often use a scientific reading approach to help students through phonics, which maps sounds to letters. However, they may not take into account differences in pronunciation or language, or they may view differences in pronunciation as a problem.
Professor Holt says that if a student uses the “fee-ya” pronunciation of the word, “you have to say, 'Well, there's an 'R' sound at the end.” I understand what you're saying, and it is.” It's perfect and beautiful, but we want to be able to map it as you read, write, and listen to it,” she said. “It's a very simple thing, but we rarely see it talked about in the literature.”
Jamesia Nordman, an English professor at Grand Valley State University who has taught English language arts and English at various grade levels, said young African-American English speakers, like Spanish speakers, He said he tends to move between languages, from English to standard American English. (SAE).
Teachers should “let them oscillate between AAE and SAE, and gradually teach them the rules and mechanics of SAE and so on. … I think they should just teach them in combination with each other,” Nordman said.
“A place of understanding”
According to Nordman, there are other aspects to African American understanding of English in the classroom beyond the mechanics of reading instruction. The idea is to show children that they should embrace African-American English and value their own language.
“It’s a language, it’s not slang,” she said. “We need to teach our children that these things are valid and valuable.”
As a student who grew up in Detroit, Nordman said she didn't always feel that her first language, African American English, was seen as valued and that she was constantly corrected for the way she spoke. , I felt that I was often made to feel embarrassed. At Eastern Michigan University, people always took notice of her “accent” even though she was from Detroit, a 40-minute drive to EMU's campus.
“It would have been really helpful if it had come from a place of understanding,” she says.
To promote inclusion and foster a love of reading, school libraries, classroom bookshelves and required reading should include books that include African American English, Nordman and others said. Examples include “Game” by Walter Dean Myers, “Bud, Not Buddy” by Christopher Paul Curtis, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, and “An Ode to the Fresh Cut” by Derrick Barnes. And so on.
Jones said educators can teach Standard English and Black English ideas side by side to show that they value students' identities and experiences. For example, she said, a standard English speaker might say, “I'm fine.” But different communities have other ways of communicating that, such as “I'm straight,” “we're okay,” and “I'm okay.”
“Even though Standard English tells us one way of living and speaking, it's the same with African American English. We just do the same thing in a different way, and it's more personal. It's more culturally responsive to their needs,” Jones said. “Sometimes you don't get what you get from Sapphire's 'Push' from 'A Tale of Alabama.' 'Push' is steeped in African-American English.”
Research on African American English is ongoing, and Holt said that if Detroit residents are asked to participate in such a study, they will be asked about the research being conducted and researchers will be informed about the research process. It recommends asking whether black families are involved as part of the program.
“African-American English is so positive that it can't be helped,” she says. “We want to encourage people to use the language that speaks to their soul.”
Smitherman is optimistic. She said her attitude towards “all things that aren't Queen English” had changed for the better, adding: “I'm very happy about the changes that have been made and the changes that I've been a part of. ” he added.
Contact Lily Altavena: lartavena@freepress.com.
