🚀 go-pugleaf

Bob LeChevalier wrote:
> 
> "Comm" <no@spam.com> wrote:
> >What the hey?  See in.
> >
> >"Bob LeChevalier" <lojbab@lojban.org> wrote in message
> >news:koqdg11r0oiuiajksgl98ue8d12rli7ukd@4ax.com...
> >> "Comm" <no@spam.com> wrote:
> >>>"Bob LeChevalier" <lojbab@lojban.org> wrote in message
> >>>news:ro5ef1dtm1sanutvfp9vcmol1321a9q2mm@4ax.com...
> >>>>>The problem with that is that by the time about a year goes by for
> >>>>>anyone
> >>>>>to
> >>>>>learn "first year ebonics" the language of ebonics will have
> >>>>>significantly
> >>>>>CHANGED.
> >>>>
> >>>> As I said, nobody is learning "first year ebonics", since nobody is
> >>>> teaching it.
> >>>
> >>>I haven't read the entire LONGwinded thread, heh.  Just saw this post from
> >>>you.  I know nobody's teaching it.  But how could anyone teach a language
> >>>that changes so fast?
> >>
> >> Who is teaching the language?
> >
> >I have no idea IF it's being taught.
> 
> No one has yet posted information about an Ebonic program that was
> intended to "teach the language".  The idea is to inform the
> *teachers* as to what the differences between Black English Vernacular
> and the academic standard language, so that the *teachers* can
> understand what the students are saying and when an error might be due
> to the nonstandard language rather than failure to understand the
> concepts, in which case the job of the teacher is *different*.

So, it appears that Ebonics is actually being taught. Not to the
students, but to the teachers. Maybe it isn't being taught to them in
the same way one would teach a foreign language, where the goal is to
make the 'student' fluent in the language.  

> When a
> foreigner makes a mistake, the teacher likely will recognize the
> difference between a conceptual misunderstanding and a language error,
> but that is far less likely with a native speaker, especially one
> speaking a dialect that is so much derided.  The teachers also tend to
> have the same misconceptions about the nature of the differences as
> the racists who post obviously phony "ebonics talk".

So, why don't we have similar programs for some of the white dialects?
The problems are very much similar in that teachers often can't
understand some of the 'dumb hillbilly' talk and just write the speakers
off as backward hicks. On the other hand, some teachers do attempt to
work through their students communications problems, but in the case of
the various white dialects, the approach seems to be the same. That is,
to reinforce the students' use of 'standard english'. Why is Ebonics
different?

-- 
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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My inner child can beat up your inner child.
                -- Alex Greenbank