Chapter 3. Pitfalls and promises of dialect in the classroom

Abstract

African American English (AAE) is among the most studied dialects of American English (Gollan & Ferreira, 2009), and is spoken by most, but not all, African American people in the United States. It is a source of pride and identity within the community, unifying its speakers socially and linguistically. Outside of the community, however, AAE has a long and complicated history that is inexplicably entangled with race politics. By most accounts, AAE is regarded as a low status, stigmatized variety and as such has not been without controversy in social, political and educational circles. Its status, and the often controversial nature of AAE, has significantly impacted attempts to introduce it into educational settings, and has hindered its use by educators and child speakers as an accepted way to bootstrap language and literacy learning. This, despite mounting evidence of the impact of AAE on outcomes of language-supported academic skills, such as reading, writing and spelling (Brown et al., 2015; Craig et al., 2003; Puranik et al., 2020; Thomas-Tate et al., 2004; Thompson et al., 2004; Washington et al., 2019; Washington et al., 2018; Patton-Terry & Connor, 2010; Terry, 2006; Charity et al., 2004). The sections that follow present an overview of the history and origins of AAE, the pitfalls, promises, and potential future directions for the use of AAE in the classroom.