African American English has been viewed more as an obstacle than a dialect to the children who speak it. Since the 1960’s many have questioned the abilities of the children who speak African American English. The dialect has been considered a “slang” in the education system; and in 1979 it was ruled that African American English serves as a barrier in the classroom (Green, 2002). According to the 2000 Nations Report Card (National Assessment of Educational Progress) speakers of African American English are behind in their reading scores. In general, they scored lower than students their age who are White, Hispanic, and other races (Green, 2002). In Lisa Green’s paper, she addresses linguistic features of African American English focusing
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The programs have come across many of the same issues as people who addressed African American English in the 1960’s faced. A study in 1973 concluded that African American English speakers are challenged by structural interference; which Green defines as “a type of conflict that occurs when speakers have difficulty decoding mainstream English” (Green, 2002, p.674). This conflict can hider a child’s performance academically. However, there are ways a teacher can assist in closing the learning gap. One strategy for helping African American English speaking students improve their mainstream English reading skills is taking a contrastive approach. Students, with the help of their teachers, point out the differences and similarities between the two dialects. Once students are able to see the major and minor differences they can apply their knowledge of the differences to …show more content…
Pluralizations in mainstream English will not be produced the same in African American English because of voicing generalization. The clusters of the plural forms of words ending in “sk” for example would be reduced to only the consonant “s” (Green, 2002). The voicing generalization also causes differences when producing the voiced or voiceless “th” in African American English dialect. If “th” is at the beginning of a word many times it will be replaced with a “d” sound and in the middle of a word “th” will generally be replaced with a “f” (Green, 2002). This replacement of “th” is one that causes many mainstream English speakers to think of African American English speakers as
The programs have come across many of the same issues as people who addressed African American English in the 1960’s faced. A study in 1973 concluded that African American English speakers are challenged by structural interference; which Green defines as “a type of conflict that occurs when speakers have difficulty decoding mainstream English” (Green, 2002, p.674). This conflict can hider a child’s performance academically. However, there are ways a teacher can assist in closing the learning gap. One strategy for helping African American English speaking students improve their mainstream English reading skills is taking a contrastive approach. Students, with the help of their teachers, point out the differences and similarities between the two dialects. Once students are able to see the major and minor differences they can apply their knowledge of the differences to …show more content…
Pluralizations in mainstream English will not be produced the same in African American English because of voicing generalization. The clusters of the plural forms of words ending in “sk” for example would be reduced to only the consonant “s” (Green, 2002). The voicing generalization also causes differences when producing the voiced or voiceless “th” in African American English dialect. If “th” is at the beginning of a word many times it will be replaced with a “d” sound and in the middle of a word “th” will generally be replaced with a “f” (Green, 2002). This replacement of “th” is one that causes many mainstream English speakers to think of African American English speakers as