Ebonics: The Subject Still Stirs Strong Feelings

[Harold Schiffman]

Forwarded from edling at ccat.sas.upenn.edu

Hartford Courant

Ebonics: The Subject Still Stirs Strong Feelings

Discussing the gap in language acquisition among students, Faye Gage used a
term recently at a national conference on grammar instruction that can still
raise some hackles: "Ebonics."

"People are afraid of the Ebonics word," said Gage, director of the
Connecticut Writing Project. "I have been told not to use it."

Her mention of it at the 18th annual conference of the Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar, held at Fairfield University, didn't cause much
of a stir among the 40 or so audience members. But outside of language
circles, it's a topic that can kick up strong feelings more than 10 years
after the Oakland school board caused a national furor by proposing an
Ebonics program for its schools.

Full story:
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-grammar.artjul23,0,4417781.story



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Harold F. Schiffman


Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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