Understanding African-American English (AAE): A Course in Language Comprehension and Cross-Cultural Understanding for Advanced English Language Learners in the United States

UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 1 Understanding African-American English (AAE): A Course in Language Comprehension and Cross-Cultural Understanding for Advanced English Language Learners in the United States “This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and it is more different from Standard English than any other dialect spoken in continental North America.” —William Labov © 2012 by Richard E. McDorman UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 2 Understanding African-American English (AAE): A Course in Language Comprehension and Cross-Cultural Understanding for Advanced English Language Learners in the United States Table of Contents Context and Course Description.................................................................................................. 3 Needs Assessment .......................................................................................................................... 5 Subjective Assessment Tool........................................................................................................ 6 Objective Assessment Tool ......................................................................................................... 7 Consideration of Resources and Constraints ............................................................................. 9 Course Goals and Objectives ..................................................................................................... 10 Conceptualizing Content ............................................................................................................ 12 Conceptualization of content about the linguistic features of AAE .......................................... 13 Conceptualization of content about the social and cultural factors related to AAE ................. 14 Selecting, Adapting and Creating Materials and Activities .................................................... 15 Evaluation/Assessment ............................................................................................................... 16 Organization of Course Content and Activities: Course Outline ........................................... 21 Course Syllabus and Schedule ................................................................................................... 28 Course Materials ......................................................................................................................... 31 Lesson Plans and Sample Activities .......................................................................................... 35 Lesson Plans 8.1-8.5 .............................................................................................................. 35 Lesson Plans 9.1-9.5 .............................................................................................................. 46 Lesson Plans 10.1-10.5 .......................................................................................................... 59 References .................................................................................................................................... 71 UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 3 Context and Course Description Modern methods of second language instruction, such as communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based language learning (TBLL), emphasize the importance of interaction in the second language acquisition and learning process and focus on the development of real-world language skills and the learner’s ability to use language in authentic, meaningful contexts. Proponents of such methods generally claim that the ultimate goal of instruction is to allow the learner to develop global communicative competence in the target language and culture that encompasses not only a knowledge of grammar, lexis and phonology, but equally importantly, socially-constructed knowledge about how, when, where and why to use the language. Yet despite their ostensible emphasis on the importance of interaction and the learner’s ability to successfully navigate communicative encounters in the target language, the dominant paradigms in the field of teaching English as a second language (ESL) have all but ignored dialects other than the standard. While such an approach may arguably be appropriate in some English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, in which learners may never actually interact with a native English speaker as they learn English primarily as an international lingua franca, refusal to acknowledge the importance, and necessity, of understanding dialects other than the standard fails to meet the real-world communicative needs of many English language learners in predominantly English-speaking countries such as the United States. English language learners in wide swaths of the United States, from the rural South, which has seen large increases in the number of Spanish-speaking migrants during the last decade, to many of the nation’s largest cities (especially in the urban Northeast, Midwest, Texas and California) regularly interact with native speakers of dialects other than Standard American English (SAE), particularly speakers of African-American English (AAE) 1 . In fact, in some large American cities, including Miami, native speakers of AAE may outnumber native speakers of SAE by 1 African-American English (AAE), which has been variously referred to as Black English, Black Vernacular English (BVE), African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), and African-American Language (AAL), among other terms, is a variety of American English spoken predominantly, but not exclusively, by African-Americans in the United States, historically in the South and since the middle twentieth century in large cities mainly in the American Northeast and Midwest and on the Pacific Coast. Since the early 1970s and famously in the mid-1990s, this variety of English has sometimes been called Ebonics, a term that has engendered a considerable amount of controversy, by non-linguists. (Green, 2002) UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 4 significant margins. 2 Clearly, for English language learners living in such areas, the ability to understand AAE and its sociocultural context is critical to their overall communicative success. Unfortunately, most ESL (and ESL teacher training) programs in the United States have virtually ignored the significance of dialects other than SAE. Perhaps due to the cultural (over)sensitivities involved, fear of dealing with difficult (or as some might feel, awkward) social and racial issues, as well as widespread ignorance of the history, structure, importance and sociocultural role of AAE in American society, English as a second language programs in the United States generally lack even the briefest mention or acknowledgment of this important dialect of American English. 3 Through this course, which will be described below, I seek to challenge the outdated notion that English language learners, especially those living in the American South and many of the country’s largest urban centers, can truly acquire full interactional competence through instruction that addresses SAE alone. Although this particular course will focus on AAE, a fundamental shift in the dialectal focus of ESL curricula in the United States is required in order to address other important, but ignored, dialects of American English, including Appalachian, Southern and New York English. Simply put, the ESL syllabus must break free of the longstanding intellectual imperiousness of the standard to embrace instruction that encompasses the many Englishes that learners will encounter and thereby achieve the culturally responsive pedagogy so often advocated by leaders in the field. The purpose of this course is to familiarize advanced English language learners with AfricanAmerican English in its current and historical sociocultural context. Learners will acquire the ability to understand AAE in its spoken and written forms through exposure to and analysis of oral and written texts from multiple genres, including authentic examples of oral discourse, oral and written literature (both prose and poetry), and music. Learners will develop a basic 2 According to the United States Census Bureau, of the more than 2.5 million residents of Miami-Dade County, Florida, “Black persons” make up 19.3% of the population while “white persons not Hispanic” make up only 16.0% of the population. Both groups are numerically eclipsed by “persons of Hispanic or Latino origin,” who comprise 64.5% of the population. Notably, a large majority of the total population (71.9%) speaks a language other than English (primarily Spanish, followed by Haitian Creole) at home. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12/12086.html. 3 After an extensive internet search, I could not find any published ESL curricular or course materials that included substantial information about AAE (viz., more than a passing reference or a few paragraphs). UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 5 understanding of the phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and pragmatics of AfricanAmerican English. In addition, the course will address important social, cultural and historical issues related to AAE and its use, including societal views of this dialect of English and its speakers. Although this course will not require learners to attempt to produce AAE for communicative purposes (the emphasis is on comprehension rather than production), students will be required to talk and write about AAE, its speakers and its use throughout the course. This course will be an elective component of an intensive general (non-academic) English program at a private language institute in Miami, Florida, a large ethnically diverse metropolis and the largest urban area in the Southeastern United States. 4 The students in the course will likely range in age from 16 to 50 years and come from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds, although the majority of students will probably originate from Latin America and be native speakers of Spanish or Portuguese. Some of the students may plan to eventually return to their countries of origin, while others may hope to permanently settle in the area. In order to enroll in this course, students must have successfully completed level three of the five-level intensive English program and will therefore (based on the structure of the program) have a proficiency level of at least 3 on the ILR proficiency scale. Although this course will be most useful for those learners who plan to settle (or have already settled) in the United States, enrollment will not be restricted to such learners, as all students can profit from developing awareness, understanding and appreciation of dialectal diversity in English along with the racial and ethnic diversity that exists among native English speakers. Needs Assessment In order to determine the needs of students who wish to enroll in the course, two forms of assessment will be conducted: (1) a subjective assessment conducted through a written questionnaire and (2) an objective assessment to measure students’ current level of comprehension of spoken AAE. The subjective assessment questionnaire will ask students about their experiences with, understanding of and attitudes about AAE and language variation and use in general, while the objective assessment will consist of a short video clip of authentic use of AAE followed by a set of questions about the content of the video. These assessment instruments 4 See http://www.census.gov/popest/data/metro/totals/2011/index.html. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 6 will also be used as a post-test administered on the last day of the course to measure the students’ achievement of the course goals. Subjective Assessment Tool Questionnaire Name ___________________ Country of origin ___________ Native language ___________ Current level in the program (please circle): 4 5 After you complete your English program, do you plan on remaining in the United States? Yes _____ No ______ If yes, where do you plan on living? ____________________________ Why are you interested in taking this course? __________________________________________ Please indicate how much you agree with each statement below. (1 = You do not agree at all, 2 = you agree a little, 3 = you agree somewhat, 4 = you agree a lot, 5 = you completely agree, X = you do not know or you are unsure). 1. Most Americans speak the same type of English. ____ 2. A person’s race or ethnicity is never related to how they speak. ____ 3. Some black (African-American) Americans speak English differently than many other Americans. ____ 4. I have sometimes found it difficult to understand some black (African-American) English speakers in the United States. ____ 5. In general, I can usually tell how intelligent someone is by the way they speak. ____ 6. I avoid talking to English speakers if I have difficulty understanding them. ____ 7. There is only one way to speak correct English. ____ 8. Most black (African-American) Americans speak the same type of English. ____ 9. Most white Americans speak the same type of English. ____ 10. I usually find it harder to understand black (African-American) Americans than other Americans. ____ 11. Everyone should speak the same type of English. ____ 12. Sometimes the same person speaks in different ways depending on the circumstances (where they are, who they are with, etc.). ____ 13. People should always speak the same way, no matter where they are or who they are with. ____ 14. Some ways of speaking English are better than others. ____ UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 7 The questions in this self-assessment questionnaire do not necessary have “right” or “wrong” answers, but are instead designed to provide the instructor with information about students’ knowledge of and attitudes about SAE, AAE and language variation. Objective Assessment Tool After watching a short news video that aired on a local television station in Miami, Florida in late 2010 in which two native speakers of AAE (Marquis Krump, age 14 and Ellwood Toomer, age 11) from Miami were interviewed after witnessing a police-related shooting, students will complete an objective assessment tool designed to measure their ability to understand spoken AAE. This document will be referred to as an objective assessment tool instead of a quiz in order to minimize student anxiety. The students will be allowed to view the video as many times as they like before completing the assessment. Objective Assessment Tool Name ___________________ Country of origin ___________ Native language ___________ Current level in the program (please circle): 4 5 Please answer the following questions about the video you just watched. Do your best to answer each question, even if you are not sure of the answer (it is acceptable to guess). 1. Why were Marquis and Ellwood interviewed? _______________________________________________________________________________ 2. What unexpected event took place in the neighborhood a few minutes before the interview? _______________________________________________________________________________ 3. What do you think Marquis meant when he said “I wuh lea’in’ Allapattah Middle”? (Note: “Allapattah Middle” is the name of a school). _______________________________________________________________________________ 4. While being interviewed, Marquis said “All I seen wuh boy was walkin’ and police done pull out a gun.” What English word do you think “wuh” refers to here? _________________________ 5. In the same sentence referred to in question (4) above, in the phrase “police done pull out a gun,” what do you think the word “done” means in this context? ___________________________ UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 8 6. What do you think Ellwood meant when he said “Police camed up on ’em”? _______________________________________________________________________________ 7. Near the end of his interview, Ellwood said, “Dey kep on shoo’in ’em and shoo’in ’em and shoo’in ’em.” In this sentence, who or what do you think the word “Dey” refers to? ____________ 8. What do you think “kep on” means here? ____________________________________________ 9. In the same sentence referred to in questions (7) and (8) above, the word “shoo’in,” which appears three times, is a verb. In the variety of English that you are familiar with, what verb do you think this would be? ______________________________________________________________ 10. The last sentence spoken by Ellwood was “An’ all da polices camed down.” What do you think Ellwood meant by this? ___________________________________________________________ 11. Of the two boys interviewed (Marquis, the first boy, and Ellwood, the second boy), did you find one easier to understand than the other? ______ If yes, which boy was easier for you to understand? _____________________________________________________________________ 12. If you found one boy easier to understand than the other, why do you think this was the case? _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ After reviewing and analyzing the students’ responses to the self-assessment questionnaire and their answers to the questions in the objective assessment tool, the instructor may need to adjust the relative emphasis placed on certain course elements accordingly. For example, if a high percentage of students strongly agree with the statement in the subjective assessment tool that “There is only one way to speak correct English,” then additional emphasis may need to be placed on the concepts of language variation, register, diglossia and the sociocultural issues related to SAE. Similarly, if the average response to the statement “Most Americans speak the same type of English” is high (indicating strong agreement), then the lesson components on regional and social dialects of American English may require greater relative attention. In a similar fashion, the students’ responses to the questions in the objective assessment tool may or may not indicate relative strengths and weaknesses in their comprehension of spoken AAE. On the one hand, if students struggle with most or all of the questions, then the amount of class time dedicated to the lexicon, grammar and phonology of AAE as indicated in the suggested UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 9 course outline may not need to be adjusted. On the other hand, since each question has been designed to test for comprehension of a specific linguistic feature of AAE, 5 the students’ relative performance on the questions or question types could necessitate modifications to the suggested course outline. For instance, if students generally fare worse on questions that measure comprehension of phonology than on other question types, then more class time would need to be devoted to this aspect of AAE, which has been scheduled for weeks eight, nine and ten of the course. Consideration of Resources and Constraints I anticipate that the most serious constraints on the successful implementation of this course will be related to the nature of the course content itself. It is an unfortunate fact that there is general and widespread ignorance and misunderstanding of African-American English, which has traditionally been a stigmatized dialect. Even among well-educated and appropriatelycredentialed language instructors and language program administrators, many believe that AAE (or whatever conception of this variety they may hold) is not a systematic, rule-governed, fullfledged and legitimate dialect of English worthy of attention, study, appreciation and respect, but is instead somehow the result of African-American children’s faulty attempts to acquire SAE or even an inherently poor language learning aptitude on the part of the speakers of this dialect. 6 Consequently, school administrators and instructors may be uncomfortable with the course’s content and themes, as may some students, depending on their personal and cultural experiences. 5 Questions 1 and 2 are designed to measure global comprehension; questions 3, 4, 7 and 9 primarily measure comprehension of phonology; questions 5 and 8 primarily measure comprehension of specified lexical items; questions 6 and 10 measure sentence-level comprehension; and questions 11 and 12 are designed to determine whether students can discriminate between two idiolects of AAE that differ in their degree of accommodation to SAE (in my subjective opinion, the speech of the older speaker—fourteen year old Marquis—is characterized by grammatical and phonological features that suggest some degree of accommodation to SAE and therefore may be easier for some students to understand, whereas the speech of the younger speaker—eleven year old Ellwood—lacks evidence of accommodation to the standard) and if so, whether they possess any insights into why the speech of the older speaker may be easier for them to understand. 6 My own action research during many years as a language school program administrator and teacher trainer has revealed that the such misconceptions and biases are fairly widespread among language instructors, although probably not as widespread as among the general public. On more than one occasion during linguistics seminars I have conducted, I was publicly challenged by instructors who objected, at times stridently, to the notion that AAE is just as rule-governed and effective at conveying the complexity of human thought as is SAE. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 16 magazines Vibe and Latin Beat to academic-oriented publications like Freakonomics and respected periodicals such as The New York Times), and educational sources such as ABC News and the PBS series Do You Speak American? The fact that this course will mainly address the comprehension of AAE and not its production as a language skill 9 is also an important consideration in the materials selection process; this fact necessarily places the emphasis on materials that exhibit AAE in use rather than those that prepare students to speak it, which apparently do not exist in any case. While students will learn about AAE, its use and its speakers throughout the course, they will talk about it in whatever variety of English they have acquired (likely interlanguages that approach SAE more than any other dialect), and so the course will involve an inherent dialectal asymmetry in that the language variety that is the subject of the course will not be the same variety that students will normally use to discuss the subject, except when quoting or referencing examples of AAE as the academic content of the course. This means that for secondary sources used during the course (i.e., curricular materials that talk about AAE rather than exemplify it), both AAE and SAE will be at play, but in different ways. Evaluation/Assessment Each student’s progress in the course will be formally assessed based on his or her completion of (1) ten weekly assignments (all constructed-response performance assessments, mostly involving narrowly-defined tasks with a moderate degree of student choice of themes and content), (2) three major projects (all performance assessments involving broadly-defined tasks with a greater amount of student choice in selecting the theme and content of the response) and (3) attendance and class participation. Students will receive qualitative and quantitative feedback from the instructor in all three areas of evaluation regarding the degree to which they have demonstrated mastery of the instructional objectives. Students will also be informally assessed throughout the course based on their completion of in-class activities, exercises and worksheets, which relate to 9 Due to the complex social, cultural and to a lesser extent geographically-situated nature of AAE, few if any students will likely find themselves in situations when it would be appropriate to attempt to produce AAE. Nevertheless, students will find in this course an open and safe space in which to explore AAE and will therefore be free to attempt to produce AAE for communicative purposes if they so choose. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 17 specific instructional objectives and will involve a combination of selected-response, constructed-response and personal-response items, but will not be graded. In the instructional context where this course will be taught, courses are either ungraded or are graded on a pass/fail basis (neither numerical scores nor final qualitative grades are awarded, although quantitative measures are used to determine whether the student has passed or failed the course). If this course is graded (this decision is made by the language institute’s administration), then students must attend at least 75% of all class sessions and earn a final composite score of 60% on all graded assignments in order to pass the course. • Weekly assignments: Each week, students will complete and orally present an assignment related to the course content for the week in question. Some assignments will require students to complete out-of-class research, while others will ask students to review and reflect on one or more aspects of the material covered during the week and/or to analyze and present data. Students must prepare the assignments in writing (in script, summary, outline or other format, according to their preferred learning styles) and orally present their work to the rest of the class. Oral presentations must last from ten to fifteen minutes and students must be prepared to answer questions about their work from their classmates and the instructor. The title and requirements of each weekly assignment can be found in bold at the end of the Activities/Assignments column in the suggested course outline, infra. • Major presentations: In addition to the ten weekly assignments, students will complete three independent research projects (one each in weeks 4, 7, and 10), which they will orally present during class. These presentations will last between twenty and twenty-five minutes, and students must be prepared to answer questions about their work. Each major presentation must include either an audio or visual (textual, pictorial or symbolic) component to support the material presented and discussed. The purpose of this evaluative component is to provide students with opportunities to explore topics of special interest related to the lexicon, grammar and phonology of AAE. The first major presentation, The Words of AAE, must address a topic of the student’s choice related to UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 18 the lexicon of AAE, the ways AAE expresses meaning, or differences in the ways AAE and SAE express meaning. The second major presentation, The Structure of AAE, must take up a topic related to the grammar (morphology and/or syntax) of AAE or a point of contrast between the grammar of AAE and SAE. The third and final major presentation, The Sounds of AAE, may consider any issue related to the phonetics or phonology of AAE or differences in the sound systems of AAE and SAE. In line with the course’s overarching philosophy, the topics selected by the students may be primarily linguistic, primarily sociocultural, or some combination of the two. Each weekly assignment and major presentation will be graded according to the following assessment rubric (source: adapted from syllabi of courses taught in the Pennsylvania State University Department of Applied Linguistics and the TOEFL iBT). Points Evaluation Grading Criteria 5 Excellent • The assignment or presentation is accurate, relevant (on topic and task) and clearly incorporates one or more issues brought up in the listening activities, readings or other assignments for the week (for weekly assignments) or course module (for major presentations). • The assignment or presentation demonstrates depth of thinking and consideration of the topic. • While the student’s language may contain lexical, grammatical and/or serious pronunciation errors, those errors do not prevent the student from adequately expressing his or her intended meaning. 4 Good • The assignment or presentation lacks one or more of the qualities above, but still demonstrates above-average thinking about the issues. • The student’s language contains lexical, grammatical and/or serious pronunciation errors that may occasionally obscure meaning or the connection of ideas. • For major presentations, the presentation is less than the required 20 minutes in length. 3 Satisfactory • The assignment or presentation lacks two or more of the UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 19 (minimum passing score) above qualities, but demonstrates average thinking about the issues. • The student’s language contains substantial lexical, grammatical and/or serious pronunciation errors that interfere with meaning. • For major presentations, the presentation is less than 15 minutes in length. 2 Developing • The assignment or presentation presents little relevant information and/or demonstrates only superficial thinking and consideration of the topic. • The student’s language contains serious and frequent lexical, grammatical and/or serious pronunciation errors that interfere with meaning throughout most of the presentation. • For major presentations, the presentation is less than 10 minutes in length or fails to include the mandatory audio or visual component. 1 Minimal • The assignment or presentation adds little value to our consideration of the topic. It is either off-topic or offtask, inaccurate or too brief to be of help in furthering our thinking and understanding of the issues. • The student’s language contains such serious and frequent errors that little meaning can be derived from the presentation. • For major presentations, the presentation is less than 5 minutes in length and fails to include the mandatory audio visual component. 0 Unacceptable • The student did not present the assignment or attempt the major presentation. • Class attendance and participation: In accordance with the institution’s attendance policy, students must attend at least 75% of all scheduled class sessions in order to pass the course (students who attend fewer than 75% of all scheduled class sessions, not counting excused absences, will automatically fail the course). In addition, students will receive a class participation grade (on a scale from 1 to 5) based on the overall quality of their contributions to the classroom interactions. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 20 • Calculation of final grade: Each student’s final grade will be calculated as follows. Weekly assignments (10): 50% (50 points, 5 points each) Major presentations (3): 40% (15 points, 5 points each) Class attendance and participation: 10% (5 points) Pass (P): 60% - 100% Fail (F): 0% – 59% The effectiveness of the course will be measured with a post-test, which will consist of the same short video the students watched at the beginning of the course, followed by a second administration of the subjective and objective assessment tools. The post-test will be administered on the last day of the course. By comparing the students’ end-of-course responses to each of the items in the subjective assessment questionnaire and the objective assessment tool to their pre-course responses, the instructor will be able to measure, in broad terms, the degree to which students have attained the course goals, both individually and in the aggregate. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 21 Organization of Course Content and Activities: Course Outline Part 1: Introduction to AAE and its speakers Week Classes Language Topics Sociocultural Topics Activities/Assignments 1 1 - 5 • Standard American English (SAE) and other English varieties • What is AfricanAmerican English (AAE)? • On the naming of the variety • Language variation: Bidialectalism, diglossia and code-switching • Who speaks AAE? • Native and non-native speakers of AAE • African-Americans, oppression and inequality in the United States • The concept of “authenticity” in the use of AAE • Activity 1 .1 (Listening) : Identifying Standard American English (SAE) and other varieties • Activity 1.2 (Listening): Do You Speak American? segment on African American English • Activity 1.3 (Reading): African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (Preface and introduction) • Activity 1.4 (Reading): What is Ebonics (African American Vernacular English)? (Article by linguist John Rickford, published by the Linguistic Society of America on the variety, its history and various names that have been used to refer to it) • Week 1 Assignment: What’s in a name? Instructions to students: Prepare and orally present a short essay on whether you believe the name of the variety of English we are studying in this course is important. Support your position with relevant evidence and/or examples. 2 6 - 10 • Theories on the origin of AAE • Where is AAE spoken? • Why is AAE spoken where it is? • Contextual variation in the use of AAE and accommodation to the standard • Regional, social and generational variation in AAE • The “Great Migration” • Language and power in the United States • Beliefs and opinions about AAE • Ac tivity 2. 1 (Listening) : Noticing regional differences in AAE: The South, Northeast, Midwest and West (examples of regional varieties of AAE) • Activity 2.2 (Listening): African-American perspectives on AAE (examples of AfricanAmericans sharing their views on AAE) • Activity 2.3 (Listening): NonAfrican-Americans on AAE (several examples of nonAfrican-Americans sharing their views on AAE) UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 22 • Activity 2.4 (Reading) : The African American Migration Experience (website of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) • Week 2 Assignment: Comparing and contrasting views on AAE. Instructions to students: What is your current understanding of how different ethnic and racial groups in the United States view AAE? Be sure to discuss why you believe such racially and/or ethnicallybased differences exist . Part 2: Lexicon and meaning in AAE Week Classes Language Topics Sociocultural Topics Activities/Assignments 3 11 - 15 • What is the lexicon? • Difference between the lexicon of AAE and SAE • Words with unique meanings in AAE • Words that exist in AAE but not in SAE • Content words (nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives) in AAE • Registers and levels of formality in AAE • “Standard AAE” • Stereotyped words and phrases from AAE in the SAE speech community • Activity 3. 1 (Listening) : Noticing and identifying words with unique meanings in AAE (examples of AAE in use, in which students identify words they know from SAE but that seem to have different meanings in AAE) • Activity 3.2 (Listening): What is “Standard AAE”? (Examples of well-known AfricanAmericans using English in a variety of settings) • Activity 3.3 (Reading): African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (chapter 1: “Lexicons and Meaning”) • Week 3 Assignment: AfricanAmericans in the media and “Standard AAE.” Instructions to students: Think about famous African-Americans you know from the media and identify at least two who speak what has been referred to as “Standard AAE.” Explain why you believe these individuals speak “Standard AAE.” Describe at least two examples (for each speaker) of the linguistic features of their speech that you have used to make this determination. (Note: This activity has been adapted from Exercise 5 of chapter 4 in African American UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 23 English: A Linguistic Introduction . ) 4 16 - 20 • Ways of adding new words to the lexicon • Productive processes of adding to the lexicon • Function words and verbal markers • Slang • AAE in the m edia: AAE as depicted on television • Regional and generational vocabulary • Labeling people, money and actions • Activity 4. 1 (Listening) : AAE on Television (examples of the use of AAE in television programs, in which students identify and discuss slang terms) • Activity 4.2 (Listening): AAE from the 1970s to today (examples of the use of AAE in television programs in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s in which students recognize generational slang used in AAE) • Activity 4.3 (Reading): 1990 Vibe article (interview with music artist Black Rob on the term “woah”) • Week 4 Assignment: Getting your noun on. Instructions to students: Identify, present and discuss the meaning and use of ten examples of the productive AAE formula get + possessive pronoun + noun + on that you learned about this week. • Major Presentation I: The Words of AAE Part 3: The grammar of AAE Week Classes Language Topics Sociocultural Topics Activities/Assignments 5 21 - 25 • Introduction to verbal markers in AAE • Auxiliaries in AAE and SAE • Aspectual markers: be, been, done • Habitual be • Emphatic I’m is • S peech events and rules of interaction • Speech communities • Participation and callresponse • Expressions in nonverbal communication in the AAE speech community • Activity 5. 1 (Listening) : NCLLP Films Video on AAE and the African-American Community (AfricanAmericans discussing the use of AAE in their community and their opinions and beliefs about AAE and SAE) • Activity 5.2 (Listening): We Be Talkin’: The Structure and Complexity of AfricanAmerican English (Presentation on AAE by an American of non-African ancestry) • Activity 5.3 (Reading): “The African-American speech community: Culture, language ideology and social face” (chapter 1 in Language, UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 24 Discourse and Power in African American Culture) • Week 5 Assignment: Sharing views on AAE. Instructions to students: Reflect on what you have learned so far in this course about AAE, its speakers and its use. What two or three facts about or features of AAE have you found most striking? Be sure to explain why you have selected these facts or features. 6 26 - 30 • Preverbal markers: finna , steady, come • Negation • Negative concord • Preterit had • Gender - based differences in the use of AAE • “Talking White” (an exploration of what this term means in the AAE speech community) • AAE from the “Harlem Renaissance” to the mid twentieth century • Activity 6. 1 (Listening) : Stop Talking White! (An AfricanAmerican woman’s perspective on her speech and the reactions of her peers to the way she talks) • Activity 6.2 (Listening): Gender differences in the use of AAE (Examples of women and men speaking AAE) • Activity 6.3 (Reading): “When women speak: how and why we enter” (chapter 4 in Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture) • Week 6 Assignment: Talking white. Instructions to students: What is your reaction to what you have learned this week about the concept of “talking white?” Do you believe that this is a valid concept? Why or why not? 7 31 - 35 • Double modals • Questions • Relative clauses • Morphosyntactic patterns in AAE • Copula deletion • Who dat? and bad - mouthing: The influence of AAE on other varieties of American English • Language and racial identity • Activity 7. 1 (Listening) : Michelle Obama Sounds Off on Race (ABC News video; original air date: March 20, 2009) • Activity 7.2 (Listening): The Wire episodes illustrating the use of AAE in Baltimore, Maryland as depicted in the media • Activity 7.3 (Reading): “First Lady Michelle Obama Reflects on Talking ‘Like a White Girl’” (companion article to ABC news video) UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 25 • Week 7 Assignment: To be or not to be. Instructions to students: Research, analyze and present five authentic examples of sentences with “habitual be” and five authentic examples of sentences illustrating copula deletion produced by speakers of AAE. For each example, provide an approximate equivalent sentence in SAE. • Major Presentation II: The Structure of AAE Part 4: The Pronunciation of AAE Week Classes Language Topics Sociocultural Topics Activities/Assignments 8 36 - 40 • The AAE vowel system • Monophthongization of /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ • Lowering of /ɪ/ before /ŋ/ • Lack of “happy tensing” • Merger of /ɪ/ and /iː/ before liquid consonants • Merger of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ before nasal consonants • Stress and intonation in AAE • Racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE (part 1) • AAE and education in the United States • The Oakland, California Ebonics controversy of 1996 • Activity 8. 1 (Listening) : Do the Right Thing (1989 film directed by Spike Lee, used to illustrate the variety of AAE spoken in New York City as well as racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE) • Activity 8.2 (Reading): “Language, discourse and power: outing schools” (chapter 6 in Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture) • Activity 8.3 (Listening): Do You Speak American? segment on the use of AAE in the classroom • Activity 8.4 (Reading): Original Oakland Resolution on Ebonics and Amended Resolution (original text of resolutions of the Oakland, California School Board of December 18, 1996) • Activity 8.5 (Reading): “Black English Is Not a Second Language, Jackson Says” (New York Times article of December 23, 1996) • Activity 8.6 (Exercise): Vowel mergers in AAE • Week 8 Assignment: Identifying the vowel features of AAE. Instructions to s tudents : R esearch, identify, UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 32 AAE speakers and popular mus ic • Audio and video clips of well-known AfricanAmericans (including President Obama) using English in a variety of settings • American English: A Linguistic Introduction (chapter 1: “Lexicons and Meaning”) 4 Lexicon and meaning in AAE • Audio and vi deo clips illustrating the use of AAE in television programs • Audio and video clips illustrating the use of AAE in television programs in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s • “Word from the hood: the lexicon of AfricanAmerican English” (chapter 7 in African-American English: Structure, history and use) • 1990 Vibe magazine article: interview with music artist Black Rob on the term “woah” 5 The grammar of AAE • NCLLP Films Video on AAE and the African - American Community (African-Americans discussing the use of AAE in their community and their opinions of and beliefs about AAE. Available at http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_i d=56110&title=African_American_English) • We Be Talkin’: The Structure and Complexity of African-American English (Presentation on AAE by an American of non-African ancestry. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVvoIveLYFc) • “The African-American speech community: Culture, language ideology and social face” (chapter 1 in Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture) • African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (chapter 2: “Synt ax part 1: verbal markers in AAE”) 6 The grammar of AAE • Stop Talking White! (An African - American woman’s perspective on her speech and the reactions of her peers to the way she talks. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0j8disIFWo) • Black People That Talk White – What does talking white mean? (An African-American man sharing his experiences about how language has played a role in his life and the reactions others have had to the way he speaks. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1w4NaMu_5s) • Audio and video clips illustrating differences and similarities in the speech of male and female speakers of AAE • “When women speak: how and why we enter” (chapter 4 in Language, Discourse and Power in UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 33 African American Culture ) 7 The grammar of AAE • Michelle Obama Sounds Off on Race (ABC News video; original air date: March 20, 2009. Available at http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=713059 4) • The Wire (television series) episodes illustrating the use of AAE in Baltimore, Maryland as depicted in the media • “First Lady Michelle Obama Reflects on Talking ‘Like a White Girl’” (companion article to ABC news video. Available at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=7130988&pag e=2#.UAsbEMWa2eY) • Who Dat? (Wikipedia article about the history and use of this phrase. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat_Nation#Who_ Dat_Nation) • Who Dat? (J. Cole song. Described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Dat_%28J._Cole_s ong%29) • African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (chapter 3: “Syntax part 2: syntactic and morphosyntactic properties of AAE”) • University of Pennsylvania “Language Log” entry on finna and tryna (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/ 002378.html ) 8 The Pronunciation of AAE • Do the Right Thing (1989 fi lm directed by Spike Lee, used to illustrate the variety of AAE spoken in New York City as well as racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE. Described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_Right_Thing) • Original Oakland Resolution on Ebonics and Amended Resolution (original text of resolutions of the Oakland, California School Board of December 18, 1996. Available at http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonics-res1.html and http://linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/ebonicsres2.html) • Do You Speak American? segment on the use of AAE in the classroom (Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX1-FgkfWo8) • “Black English Is Not a Second Language, Jackson Says” (New York Times article of December 23, 1996. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/23/us/blackenglish-is-not-a-second-language-jackson-says.html) • “Language, discourse and power: outing schools” UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 34 (chapter 6 i n Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture ) 9 The Pronunciation of AAE • African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (chapter 4: “Phonology of AAE”) • Audio and video clips containing examples of AAE as the vehicle of hip-hop music, from the 1980s to the present • “Urban youth language: black by popular demand” (chapter 5 in Language, Discourse and Power in African American Culture) • “Latinos in Hip Hop to Reggaeton” (Latin Beat Magazine article of March 1, 2005) • “Talking black and talking white: A study in variety imitation” (see citation in References) • “Aks yourself” (Article published in Word, The Online Journal of African American English. Available at http://africanamericanenglish.com/2009/04/27/aksyourself/) • “How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You “Sound Black?” (Freakonomics article of July 7, 2008. Available at http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/07/07/howmuch - does - it - cost - you - in - wages - if - you - sound - black/ ) 10 The Pronunciation of AAE • Stunt 101 (song by G - Unit . Described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunt_101) • Hot in Herre (song by Nelly. Described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_in_herre) • Audio and video clips illustrating variation in the realization of syllable-final and word-final /r/ among speakers of AAE • Akeelah and the Bee (2006 film directed by Doug Atchison. Described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akeelah_and_the_Bee) • XXL Magazine website (www.xxlmag.com) • Miami Herald video of interview with two adolescent speakers of AAE, used for the objective assessment tool (post - test) UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 35 Lesson Plans and Sample Activities The following lessons plans and sample activities pertain to the course’s final three-week module, The Pronunciation of AAE, which focuses on the phonology of AAE, how the sound systems of AAE and SAE differ, the role AAE has played in education in the United States, discrimination against speakers of AAE, racial and ethnic diversity among the dialect’s speakers, and the instrumental role AAE has played in the development of hip-hop music and culture, among related topics. Although the handouts and activities provided below are not an exhaustive collection of those that would be used during the full three-week module, they do provide a representative sample of the types of activities and materials that would take place and be used during this portion of the course. Except where attribution to an outside source is specifically noted, the content of all sample activities is my original work. Lesson planning takes place primarily at the weekly level, with suggested daily lessons, topics, procedures and activities scheduled. Lesson Plans 8.1-8.5 (Week 8, class sessions 36-40) Course Module: Part 4: The Pronunciation of AAE A. Main Goals: • Present the vowel system of AAE • Compare and contrast the vowel systems of AAE and SAE • Present and discuss the following specific features of the vowel system of AAE: o monophtongization of /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ o lowering of /ɪ/ before /ŋ/ o lack of “happy tensing” o merger of /ɪ/ and /iː/ before liquid consonants o merger of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ before nasal consonants • Present and discuss stress and intonation in AAE o stress patterns involving aspectual markers been and done • Compare and contrast stress and intonation in AAE and SAE o intonational differences at the phrase and sentence level o words in AAE with different stress patterns than in SAE • Explore the role of AAE in education in the United States • Present and discuss the Oakland Ebonics controversy of 1996 • Introduce issues of racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE B. Overview of Daily Lessons: Day 1: (1) Introduction to the vowel system of AAE (2) Introduction to the role AAE has played in public education in the United States UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 36 Day 2: (1) Comparison and contrast of the vowel systems of AAE and SAE (2) Presentation and discussion of specific vowel features of AAE (3) Continuation of discussion of AAE and education in the United States (4) Presentation and discussion of the Oakland Ebonics controversy Day 3: (1) Continuation of presentation and discussion of specific vowel features of AAE (2) Introduction to racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE Day 4: (1) Presentation and discussion of stress and intonation in AAE (2) Comparison and contrast of stress and intonation in AAE and SAE (3) Continue discussion of racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE Day 5: (1) Review material presented in days 1-4 (2) Student presentations and question/answer sessions for week 8 assignment C. Materials and Activities • Activity 8.1: Do the Right Thing (viewing and discussion) and companion activity • Activity 8.2: “Language, discourse and power: outing schools” (reading and discussion) • Activity 8.3: Do You Speak American? segment on the use of AAE in the classroom (viewing and discussion) and companion activity • Activity 8.4: Original Oakland Resolution on Ebonics and Amended Resolution (reading and discussion) • Activity 8.5 “Black English is Not a Second Language, Jackson Says” (reading and discussion) and companion activity • Activity 8.6: Vowel Mergers in AAE (in-class exercise) • Week 8 Assignment: Identifying the vowel features of AAE (Instructions to students: Research, identify, present and explain examples of ten different vowel features of AAE presented and discussed during this week’s lesson) Week 8 (class sessions 36-40), Part 4: The Pronunciation of AAE Day Topic Procedure Activity 1 1. Introduce the vowel system of AAE • Ask students what they have already observed about the vowel system of AAE based on the examples of authentic usage they have been exposed to so far during the course. • Present an overview of the vowel system of AAE with authentic examples and instructor modeling. • Watch and discuss the movie Do the Right Thing. o Movie: Do the Right Thing o Activity 8.1 2. Introduce the role AAE has played in public education in the United States • Ask students about the relationship between AAE and public education in the United States (what types of experiences do they think AAE speakers have had in UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 37 school). • Ask students if they know anything about how AAE has been addressed or considered by school systems in the United States. 2 1. Compare and contrast the vowel systems of AAE and SAE • Ask students what differences in the vowel systems of AAE and SAE they have noticed up to this point in the course. • Present an overview of the most salient differences in the vowel systems of AAE and SAE. 2. Present and discuss specific vowel features of AAE • Present and discuss examples of monophtongization of /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ (e.g., my pronounced as [ma:] and boil pronounced as [bʊ:w]). • Present and discuss examples of lowering of /ɪ/ before /ŋ/ (e.g., thing pronounced as [θæ:ŋ]). 3. Continue discussion of AAE and education in the United States • Present and discuss the role of AAE and education in the United States (themes: cultural discontinuity hypothesis, lack of access to educational opportunities for AAE speakers, teacher attitudes toward AAE, controversies regarding AAE in the public schools). o Activity 8.2 o Activity 8.3 4. Present and discuss the Oakland, California Ebonics controversy of 1996 • Present and discuss the Oakland Ebonics controversy. • Distribute text of original school board resolutions for students to read. • Ask students what they think about what they have read (Do they believe the outcome was fair? Why do they believe this issue caused such great controversy?) o Activity 8.4 o Activity 8.5 3 1. Continue to present and discuss specific vowel • Present and discuss examples of lack of “happy tensing” o Activity 8.6 UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 38 features of AAE (e.g., money pronounced as [ˈmʌ-nɪ] and Randy as [ˈræ:dɪ]). • Present and discuss examples of merger of /ɪ/ and /iː/ before liquid consonants (e.g., real pronounced as [rɪ:w] and feeling pronounced as [ˈfɪ-lən]). • Present and discuss examples of merger of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ before nasal consonants (e.g., pen pronounced as [p h ɪ:n] and send pronounced as [sɪ:n]). 2. Introduce the issue of racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE • Ask students if they think only African-Americans speak AAE (both natively and nonnatively). Why or why not? • Present examples of ethnically-diverse speakers of AAE (African-American, Latino, white). • Ask students to think of other examples. • Ask students why they think non-African-Americans would speak AAE (both natively and non-natively). • Present the concept of language identity. 4 1. Present and discuss stress and intonation in AAE • Ask students if they have noticed any interesting features of stress and intonation in the examples of AAE they have been exposed to during the course. • Have students explore what they may have noticed. • Present and discuss examples of word-level stress and phrase-level and sentencelevel intonation patterns in AAE. 2. Compare and contrast stress and intonation in AAE and SAE • Explain to students that wordlevel stress is usually similar in AAE and SAE. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 39 • Explain to students that intonation patterns at the sentence level often differ in AAE and SAE. • Present and model examples of intonational differences between AAE and SAE. • Present, model and discuss stress patterns involving aspectual markers been and done. • Present, model and discuss examples of words in AAE that have a different stress pattern than in SAE (e.g., police, Detroit, hotel, July). 3. Continue discussion of racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE • Have students discuss and react to what they have learned this week about racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE. 5 1. Review material presented in days 1-4 • Review main concepts and material presented in days 1-4. • Ask students if they have any questions or comments they would like to share about what they have learned this week 2. Have students present and discuss their week 8 assignments • Each student presents his or her completed week 8 assignment. • Conduct a brief question and answer session after each presentation. o Week 8 Assignment UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 40 Activity 8.1: Do the Right Thing During this activity, you will work in pairs to discuss the following questions about the movie “Do the Right Thing.” After you have answered the questions, you will have the chance to present your answers to the rest of the class for further discussion and review. 1. Did you find certain characters in the movie easier to understand than others? Why do you think this is the case? 2. What did you notice about the ethnic and racial diversity of the characters who speak AAE? 3. Were you surprised to see persons of Latino (Hispanic) ancestry speaking AAE in the movie? Why or why not? 4. One of the main characters in the movie is named Mister Señor Love Daddy. What significance do you believe the presence of the word Señor (which means “mister” in Spanish) in this name has? 5. The character who was constantly trying to talk to Mother Sister was known as Da Mayor. What feature of AAE that you have already encountered during the course is illustrated in this name? 6. One of the characters in the movie is named Buggin’ Out. Based on what you now know about AAE and what you heard and saw in the movie, what do you think this name means? 7. When this movie was originally released in 1989, many reviewers protested the movie because they believed that it would cause black audience members to riot. However, no such riots ever occurred. What might this suggest about the reviewers? What, if anything, does it suggest about race relations in the United States at the time? 8. During the mob scene, the Korean store owner named Sonny shouted out to the crowd, “I no White! I Black! You, me, same! We same!” This caused the mob to spare his store. What was your reaction to this? In what ways do you think Sonny was “the same” as the members of the mob? UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 41 Activity 8.3: “Do You Speak American?” Based on the video you just watched, answer the following questions. 1. What did you notice about the racial and ethnic diversity of the students in Mr. Russell’s fifth grade class? 2. About what percentage of the students in Mr. Russell’s class appeared to be AfricanAmerican? 3. What did Mr. Russell mean when he asked Marisol “how do you code-switch this into mainstream American English?” 4. In the example sentence “He funny,” what grammatical feature that you learned about a few weeks ago was being illustrated? 5. How would you code-switch the sentence in (4) into Standard American English? 6. When Mr. Russell asked the class to analyze the sentence “We don’t have nothin’ to do,” a student volunteered the following answer: “We don’t having nothing to do,” emphasizing the pronunciation of the final sound of the word nothing. However, Mr. Russell told the student that this was not a correct translation into mainstream American English. What feature of AAE was the student focusing on when giving his answer? 7. Why do you think the student noticed or focused on this feature instead of the feature of negative concord, which you learned about in week 6? 8. What might this tell you about the relationship between the sounds of AAE, the grammar of AAE, and the features that native speakers of AAE are most likely to notice? 9. The final AAE sentence that Mr. Russell showed the class was “Last night, we bake cookies.” What linguistic feature of AAE does this sentence illustrate? 10. Do you think that this feature is part of the grammatical system of AAE or the sound system of AAE (or both)? Provide a rationale for your answer. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 48 3. Continue discussion of racial and ethnic diversity among the speakers of AAE • Ask students to think about the characters from the movie Do the Right Thing, which they watched the prior week. What race or ethnicity were most of the speakers of AAE who were not African-American? (Answer = Latino/Hispanic). Ask students why they believe this was the case (i.e., why were most the speakers of AAE in the movie either African-American or Latino but not other races or ethnicities?). • Ask students whether they think that, proportionally, there are more Latino or white speakers of AAE (Answer = Latino). Why do they think this is the case? • Ask students whether they believe there are any/many native speakers of AAE who are white. (Note: there are many white native speakers of AAE). Why or why not? • Now, ask students whether they believe there are any/many non-native speakers of AAE who are white (Note: there are many non-native white speakers of AAE). Why or why not? • Ask students how they think non-native speakers of AAE may have acquired their proficiency in this dialect. (Answer = in most cases, naturalistically; i.e., through exposure to the dialect and experience using it to communicate). 2 1. Present and discuss specific consonant features of AAE • Present and discuss examples of final consonant sounds that exist in AAE. o Activity 9.2 UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 49 • Present and discuss examples of consonant cluster reduction in AAE (e.g., final /sp/, /st/ and /sk/  [s]; final /ft/  [f]; final /pt/  [p]; final /kt/  [k]; final /ld/  [l] or [w] if vocalized; final /nd/  [n]). • Explain to students that consonant cluster reduction also takes place in SAE, especially in less formal contexts, although not to the same degree as in AAE (have students try to pronounce words like eighths, clothes and lengths; explain that many native English speakers reduce/simplify the final consonant clusters in these and similar words when speaking English in most casual situations). • Ask students why they think consonant cluster reduction happens at all (in any language or dialect). (Answer = it is a natural/universal linguistic process). • Ask students what implications consonant cluster reduction has on their ability to understand AAE (e.g., many words that are distinct in SAE are homophones/sound the same in AAE). Ask students how they can determine the meaning of such homophones (Answer = context). UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 50 2. Present and discuss aphaeresis in certain words in AAE • Present examples of aphaeresis in certain words in AAE (e.g., about  bout, supposed  pose) and ask students what they notice about this pronunciation. • Explain that this process is not predictable and that students must individually learn each word in which this process has occurred. 3 1. Continue to present and discuss specific consonant features of AAE • Present and discuss examples of realization of final /ŋ/ as [n] (e.g., running pronounced as [ˈrʌ-nən] and spending pronounced as [ˈspɪ-nən]). • Explain that the realization of final /ŋ/ as [n] takes place in other varieties of English, including lower registers of SAE (i.e., informal or “everyday” spoken English). • Present and discuss examples of word-final devoicing (e.g., David pronounced as [ˈde-vət] and cab pronounced as [k h æp]). • Present and discuss examples of metathesis of final /sk/ and /sp/ (e.g., ask pronounced as [æks] and grasp pronounced as [græps]). • Use Activity 9.3 to help students understand why speakers of AAE pronounce the word ask as [æks]. o Activity 9.3 2. Introduce the role of AAE in American music in the 20th and 21st centuries • Ask students if they know anything about the role AAE has played in American music in the 20th and 21st centuries. • Ask students if they have heard of musical genres such as jazz and rhythm and blues (R&B). • Explain to students that AAE has played a foundational role UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 51 in the development of these musical genres. 3. Introduce the relationship between AAE and hiphop music and culture • Ask students if they know what hip-hop is (Answer = a musical and cultural genre or movement). • Ask students if they are aware of the role AAE has played in the development of hip-hop (Answer = AAE is the traditional language of hiphop). • Ask students what role hiphop has played in American culture since the 1980s. • Present an overview of the history of hip-hop music and culture. o Activity 9.4 o Activity 9.5 4 1. Continue to present and discuss specific consonant features of AAE • Present and discuss examples of word-initial thr (/θr/ as /θ/) before back vowels (e.g., through/threw pronounced as [θuw] and throw pronounced as [θow]). 2. Continue to discuss the relationship between AAE and hip-hop music and culture • Ask students if they know anything about the influence that hip-hop music and culture have had on the cultures of countries/societies outside of the United States. • Ask students if they have heard of a musical form known as reggaeton (note: reggaeton is a type of Puerto Rican popular music that combines reggae rhythms with hip-hop influences and includes rapping in Spanish). • Explain the influence that AAE has had on reggaeton. • Ask students what this influence says about the cultural importance and value of AAE as a form of communication. o Activity 9.6 3. Present and discuss the • Ask students if they believe o Activity 9.7 UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 52 historical and continuing discrimination against speakers of AAE speakers of AAE have experienced discrimination due to their speech. Does this discrimination still exist? Why or why not? • Have students explore this discrimination and its implications (themes: racial/ethnic discrimination vs. linguistic discrimination—is there or can there be a difference?; the relationships among racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic identity; discrimination against speakers of AAE in housing and employment). 5 1. Review material presented in days 1-4 • Review main concepts and material presented in days 1-4. • Ask students if they have any questions or comments they would like to share about what they have learned this week. 2. Have students present and discuss their week 9 assignments • Each student presents his or her completed week 9 assignment. • Conduct a brief question and answer session after each presentation. o Week 9 Assignment UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 53 Activity 9.2: Final consonant sounds in AAE Final consonant sounds in AAE Part 1: Recognizing words that sound the same In each set of three words below, speakers of AAE usually pronounce two of the words the same way and one word differently, even though all three words have a distinct pronunciation in SAE. Circle the word that is usually pronounced differently and explain how it and the other two words are pronounced in AAE. Note: All of the words are written in Standard English orthography. Teacher’s edition only: the correct answers are shaded in gray. 1 mask max mass 2 test text Tess 3 Ann and ant 4 bolt bold bowl 5 rushed Russ rush 6 toll told tolls 7 mix miss mist 8 packs pass passed 9 ban band bank 10 cold colt coal Part 2: Recognizing words that rhyme In each set of three words below, two of the words rhyme (end in the same vowel and consonant sounds) in AAE. Circle the two words that rhyme in each set and explain how they and the other word are pronounced in AAE. Note: All of the words are written in Standard English orthography. 1 post close pokes 2 wasp tops lost 3 friend men tint 4 ask act back 5 spend win lint 6 makes haste race 7 speck inspect pecks 8 best Lex desk 9 roll sold bolt 10 face raised phase UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 54 Part 3: Recognizing plural forms In each set of words below, two of the words are usually pronounced the same way by speakers of AAE. Circle the pair of words in each set that sound the same. Explain why the words you have selected in each pair sound the same. 1 mists miss misses 2 Texas Tess’s tests 3 masks masses Max’s 4 pastes paces (noun) paste 5 writs wrists risks Part 4: Pronunciation practice Practice pronouncing the following words and phrases as a speaker of AAE would. After you have completed this exercise, think about the words and phrases you just practiced. Were some more difficult than others? Why or why not? 1 toast 2 blind 3 hosts 4 wind 5 posting up 6 fold 7 that’s a fact 8 owned 9 casts 10 kiosk UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 55 Activity 9.3: Aks yourself The following article was published in the online journal Word, The Online Journal on African American English on April 27, 2009. Aks yourself Have you ever had anyone ‘aks’ you a question? Have you ever ‘aksed’ anybody for something? Do you think it’s annoying or ‘bad English’ when you hear the word pronounced like that? Pronouncing ‘ask’ as ‘aks,’ (like axe) is a linguistic phenomenon known as metathesis, or the reversal in order of two adjacent letters. It’s not wrong, and it doesn’t mean somebody is stupid, either. It’s just another way of pronouncing a word. The (now) non-standard pronunciation of ‘aks’ is a recognizable feature of African American English, but its roots can be traced back throughout the evolution of the English language. Similarly, the history of African American English can be traced back to a multitude of sources, both English and African in origin. Differences in the way people talk aren’t necessarily wrong, just different, and oftentimes there’s a a concrete historical precedent for it. In fact, the pronunciation of the word ‘ask’ has a long and fascinating history in the English language. The two pronunciations were at one time both spoken in different dialects of English 1000 years ago in England. Consider an example from the Medieval text of Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale,’ when the knight Palemon says: “Yow loveris, axe I now this questioun.” It just happened that due to political circumstances, the people who spoke the dialect of English with the ‘ask’ pronunciation became the more dominant social group. And thus, ‘ask’ prevails as the standard today. So, lovers of language, I axe you to reconsider your thoughts and attitudes on the usage of this non-standard pronunciation of ‘ask.’ [End of article] Aks: Points for reflection and discussion The pronunciation of the word ask as aks (or axe) in AAE is one of the most stereotyped and stigmatized (well-known and disapproved of) features of AAE among speakers of other dialects of North American English, including SAE. Do you believe that most speakers of SAE are aware of the reason why speakers of AAE pronounce the word this way? Do you think they would be surprised to learn that this is one of the original pronunciations of the word, going back over one thousand years? Why or why not? UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 56 Activity 9.7: How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You “Sound Black?” How Much Does It Cost You in Wages if You “Sound Black?” Freakonomics July 7, 2008 Fascinating new research by my University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compares the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not. His main finding: blacks who “sound black” earn salaries that are 10 percent lower than blacks who do not “sound black,” even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn. (For what it is worth, whites who “sound black” earn 6 percent lower than other whites.) How does Grogger know who “sounds black?” As part of a large longitudinal study called the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, follow-up validation interviews were conducted over the phone and recorded. Grogger was able to take these phone interviews, purge them of any identifying information, and then ask people to try to identify the voices as to whether the speaker was black or white. The listeners were pretty good at distinguishing race through voices: 98 percent of the time they got the gender of the speaker right, 84 percent of white speakers were correctly identified as white, and 77 percent of black speakers were correctly identified as black. Grogger asked multiple listeners to rate each voice and assigned the voice either to a distinctly white or black category (if the listeners all tended to agree on the race), or an indistinct category if there was disagreement. Then he put this measure of whether a voice sounded black into a regression (the standard statistical tool that economists use for estimating things), and came up with the finding that blacks who “sound black” earn almost 10 percent less, even after taking into account other factors that could influence earnings. One piece of interesting good news is that blacks who do not “sound black” earn essentially the same as whites. (It turns out you don’t want to sound southern, either. Although pretty imprecisely estimated, it is almost as bad for your wages to sound southern as it is to sound black, even controlling for whether you live in the south.) So what does this all mean? The first question to ask is whether the impact of speech on wages is a causal one. It is possible that there are many other characteristics that differ between blacks who do or do not “sound UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 57 black” that Grogger cannot control for in his regressions. It does seem likely that the biases at work would make his estimate an upper bound. (Although it should also be noted that his estimates are for young people, and the importance of speech may become important with age, in which case his results might underestimate the long-run effects.) If one believes Grogger’s effects are causal, then investing in the ability to not “sound black” looks to have a huge return — roughly of the same magnitude as getting one more year of schooling. Of course, there is the issue of one’s identity. There may be personal costs associated with being black and not sounding black. But these costs would have to be pretty large. (When I have Asian Ph.D. students go on the job market in the United States, I tell them that I think there is rampant discrimination against non-English speakers and encourage them to adopt Americanized first names for the job market. Very few of my students choose to do so — either a testimony to the identity cost of pretending to be someone you aren’t, or possibly their lack of faith in my assessment of the amount of discrimination.) I was talking with one of my colleagues about this study. He thinks it will be a very important and influential one. My response, “Tru dat.” UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 64 shoot). Ask students why they think this phenomenon might be more common among younger males than other speakers. • Present, model and discuss examples of word initial spr, str and skr (which may be pronounced with initial palatal [ʃ] or apical or retroflex [ʂ] instead of [s]). Explain to students that this phenomenon is also most common among younger speakers (especially males) and that it has also been observed among younger male speakers of SAE and other North American English dialects. Finally, explain to students that this is actually a natural process, conditioned by the retroflexion of the r sound in the sequence. 2. Introduce and discuss the concepts of prestige and covert prestige in the AAE and SAE speech communities • Ask students which dialect of English (AAE or SAE) is more “prestigious” within American society at large. Why do they think this is this the case? (Answer = the historical social relationship between speakers of SAE and AAE) • Explain to students that in multidialectal societies, the prestige dialect (in our case, SAE) has more linguistic influence on other dialects than the other way around. Ask students why they think this is so. • Have students explore their beliefs about prestige dialect(s) in their native languages and ask them to relate that understanding to the relationship between AAE and UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 65 SAE. • Explain to students what covert prestige is and have them explore the concept as it relates to AAE and SAE. • Ask students to recall prior discussions about “talking black” and “talking white.” Ask them why speakers of AAE who have the ability to “sound white” (i.e., use SAE) still choose to “sound black” (i.e., use AAE) (Answer = covert prestige). • Recalling the Freakonomics article from last week (Activity 9.7), ask students why white speakers would choose to “sound black” (i.e., use AAE) even if they also speak SAE (Answer = covert prestige). 3. Present and discuss stigmatized phonological features of AAE • Ask students if they know what is meant by “stigmatized” (if no one knows, review Activity 9.3, in which the term was defined). • Ask students if they believe AAE is a stigmatized dialect of English. Why or why not? • Explain that within the AAE speech community, certain linguistic features (including specific vocabulary and pronunciations) are stigmatized (make sure students understand that this refers to judgments within the AAE speech community). • Present and discuss examples of realization of word-initial str as [skr] or [ʃkr] (e.g., straight pronounced as [skreit] and strip pronounced as [skrɪp]). • As students why such a feature o Activity 9.7 (as review) UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 66 (seemingly no more different from SAE than any other they have learned about) might be stigmatized in the AAE speech community (Answer = the relative social position within the community of those who use this phonological feature). • Ask students if they see any parallels between this relationship within the AAE speech community and the broader relationship between AAE and SAE. • Ask students why AAE speakers might use this phonological feature, even if they know that it will bring about disapproval from others within the community (try to have students relate this concept with the concepts brought up in Activity 9.7 and covert prestige, presented earlier in the class). 4 1. Review material presented in days 1-3 • Review main concepts and material presented in days 1-3. • Ask students if they have any questions about what they have learned this week. 2. Have students present and discuss their major presentations • Each student presents his or her completed Major Presentation III. • Conduct brief question and answer session after each presentation. o Major Presentation III 5 1. Have students present and discuss their week 10 assignments • Each student presents his or her completed week 10 assignment. • Conduct brief question and answer session after each presentation. o Week 10 Assignment 2. Administer course post-test • Play video. • Administer post-test (objective assessment tool). o Video o Post-test UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 67 Activity 10.2: Variation in the pronunciation of final /r/ Many speakers of AAE, especially those who live in the South, do not strongly pronounce the r sound at the ends of syllables and especially at the ends of words, unless the next syllable or word starts with a vowel sound. This is also true of speakers of other English dialects in the United States (including those who live in parts of the Northeast and South), as well as most native English speakers in England and Australia. Many speakers of AAE do not pronounce the r sound at all when it is the last sound of a syllable or word. In some parts of the United States such as Arkansas and Missouri, speakers of AAE may pronounce the r sound in this environment but with neutralization of the preceding vowel (neutralized vowels in English sound like the a of the words about and ago or the io of words like nation and station), while in others, including some parts of California, speakers of AAE may pronounce the final r more or less like speakers of SAE do. When speakers of AAE do not pronounce the final r sound, the preceding vowel (that is, the one that comes right before the r) usually becomes longer if the syllable is stressed, as in the phrase fa sho (“for sure” in SAE). In the phrase fa sho, the word sho may be pronounced exactly like the word show. Similarly, in the phrase close da do’ (“close the door” in SAE), the word do’ may be pronounced like the words dough and though (remember that the soft th sound is pronounced as d when it occurs at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable in AAE). You should remember that speakers of AAE may adjust their speech, including their pronunciation, depending on the social circumstances, their location, the people they are speaking with, and other factors, as you learned in units 1 and 2 of the course. The same speaker of AAE who does not pronounce the final r sound at all when interacting with other members of the AAE speech community in informal situations may adjust his or her pronunciation so that in more formal situations or when interacting with those who do not speak AAE, the final r sound is pronounced almost the same or the same as in SAE. In fact, research has shown that the pronunciation of the final r sound is one of the most variable features of the pronunciation of AAE. Because of these facts, when interacting with speakers of AAE, you should always consider the possibility that a word that ends in a vowel sound may end in r in SAE if you find yourself having difficulty understanding a word or phrase. UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 68 Practicing syllable-final and word-final r Try pronouncing the following pairs of words and phrases, first as a speaker of SAE would and then as a speaker of AAE who does not usually pronounce final r would. Do you notice any patterns? store stow letter let a corn cone door doe more mow tore up toe up wire why swore swole * Note: Swole is not a word in SAE. In AAE, swole means “muscular” (example sentence in AAE: Dat boy swole. Approximately equivalent sentence in SAE: That young man is muscular). It may also be the past tense form of the verb to swell for some speakers of AAE. Now try pronouncing the following words and phrases (written in SAE orthography) as an AAE speaker who does not usually pronounce final r would. 1 hold the door 2 butter 3 no more 4 forty-four 5 power 6 court 7 score 8 forever more* 9 internet 10 before Note: In the word forever, the first r is actually the first sound of the second syllable, not the last sound of the first syllable. How does this affect how a speaker of AAE would pronounce this word? UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 69 Activity 10.5: Stunt 101 Stunt 101 By G-Unit Third verse (Sung by recording artist Young Buck) Chain so icy, you don’t have to like me. In a throwback jersey, with the throwback Nikes. I know you probably seen me with Cash Money from back in the days. The only thing changed is the numbers on the range. I bought me an old school and blew out the brains. The Roc the Mic tour, I threw off my chain. My Sprewells spinning man, I’m doing my thing. And whodi now in trouble now that you in the game. Come on now, we all know gold is getting old. The ice in my teeth keep the Cristal cold. G-Unit homie, actin’ like y’all don’t know. Look, I can’t even walk through the mall no more. I just pull up, get out, and get all the hoes. They never seen doors lift up on a car before. Don’t be mad at me dog, that’s all I know. That’s how to show these fougaisies how it’s supposed to go. Key vocabulary Words in red do not exist in Standard English 1. icy: filled with diamonds (slang) 2. throwback: from an older time (referring to a previous version or style of clothing) 3. Cash Money: the name of another musical group 4. range: Range Rover (a type of vehicle) (slang) 5. old school: here, a vehicle from many years ago; this term generally refers to something from a prior time or generation (slang) 6. to blow out the brains: to remove the top of a car, so as to turn it into a convertible (slang) 7. Roc the Mic: the name of a concert series 8. Sprewell: the brand name of a type of wheel rim of a car, named after a well-known professional basketball player (slang) This word does not exist in SAE (in SAE it is only a surname). 9. whodi: friend, homeboy (slang). This word does not exist in SAE. 10. ice: here, referring to diamonds embedded in the singer’s teeth (slang) 11. Cristal: the name of a brand of expensive champagne UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 70 12. homie: friend (more or less synonymous with whodi) (slang) This word does not exist in SAE. 13. hoes: a derogatory (very negative) and offensive term for women, considered obscene by most people (slang). This spelling represents the AAE pronunciation of SAE whore, which is also an obscene term referring to women. Note: you should never use either term. 14. dog: here, synonymous with whodi or homie (slang) 15. fougaisy (plural: fougaisies): a person who is inauthentic or fake in some way (slang). This word does not exist in SAE. Read the lyrics as you listen to the song again. Which pronunciation features that you have learned about during this module do you notice in the following lines? Hint: the relevant features are in bold. 1. In a throwback jersey, with the throwback Nikes 2. The only thing changed is the numbers on the range 3. The Roc the Mic tour, I threw off my chain 4. My Sprewells spinning man, I’m doing my thing 5. And whodi now in trouble now that you in the game 6. The ice in my teeth keep the Cristal cold 7. G-Unit homie, actin’ like y’all don’t know 8. Look, I can’t even walk through the mall no more 9. They never seen doors lift up on a car before Teacher’s edition only: the elicited answers are provided below (but in much more technical detail than what would be expected by the students). 1. throwback: reduction of initial thr (/θr/) to th (/θ/) 2. changed: vowel lowering of /ɛi/ to /ai/; final consonant cluster reduction 3. tour, numbers: deletion of word-final /r/ 4. threw: reduction of initial thr (/θr/) to th (/θ/) 5. chain: vowel lowering of /ɛi/ to [ai] 6. My: /ai/ monophthongization (neutralized here since unstressed) 7. doing: realization of final /ŋ/ as [n] 8. thing: realization of /i/ as [ɛi] or [æ] before word-final [ŋ] 9. that, the: realization of word-initial th (/ð/) as [d] 10. teeth: realization of word-final th (/θ/) as [f] 11. actin’: consonant cluster reduction (/kt/ to [k]) 12. through: reduction of initial thr (/θr/) to th (/θ/) 13. mall: vocalization of word-final /l/ to [w] 14. more: deletion of word-final /r/ with compensatory vowel lengthening 15. they: realization of word-initial th (/ð/) as [d] 16. doors: deletion of word-final /r/ with compensatory vowel lengthening 17. lift: consonant cluster reduction (/ft/ to [f]) 18. car, before: deletion of word-final /r/ with compensatory vowel lengthening UNDERSTANDING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ENGLISH RICHARD E. MCDORMAN 71 References Baugh, J. (2000). Beyond Ebonics: Linguistic pride and racial prejudice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Green, L. (2002). 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