Page 112 - Difference or Disorder Digital Version

Chapter 15: AFRICAN‐AMERICAN ENGLISH

loneliness and was never openly received in the community. I always knew my first dialect

was my connection with my community and I could never lose it in order to make others in

the mainstream population happy.

On the other hand, in school I was expected to speak Standard American English. I

was presented with books and tests that were written and normalized on Standard American

English speakers and I was expected to be successful. However, most teachers did not know

how to address the needs of students who spoke African‐American English in their lessons.

There were teachers who had a negative view about African‐American English, thus they

viewed the speaker of African‐American English as intellectually deficient. There were other

teachers who did not feel comfortable speaking to the parents of African‐American English

speakers to design a plan to assist the learner who speaks African‐American English in the

schools. As a speech‐language pathologist, I still see both of these situations occurring in the

school setting. Luckily, I had awesome parents who served as my greatest advocates. When

I began to have trouble in school, they believed in me and communicated the importance of

code‐switching. My parents did not force me to speak Standard American English in

elementary or middle school. My parents, grandparents, and great‐grandparents always

reminded me of how beautiful African‐American English was. My mentors reminded me of

how my ancestors came to America and did not have the ability to communicate with each

other or in the American society. However, they were able to form a language, a dialect of

their own that allowed them to experience the gift of communication. I always felt a sense

of pride when I heard how African‐American English was formed. But reality was setting in; I

was in high school preparing for college. Most of the tests utilized to determine my future

were normalized on Standard American English speakers. I knew that when I received my
100
scores, they would not take into account my background. Thus, I had to learn the importance

of being proud of who I was, and knowing the difference of who I could be if I had the ability

Copyright © 2014 www.bilinguistics.com. All Rights Reserved