Messages

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English & Linguistics / AAVE, aka Ebonics and school teachers

« on: October 08, 2006, 04:38:31 PM »

The professor that teaches linguistic anthropology asked me to stay after class Friday.  turns out that one of areas of interest is African American Vernacular English, also called "Ebonics" and he wanted to know what I thought about the debate between whether AAVE is a separate language or just a dialect of English.  He was interested in my opinion not because of my beauty and brilliance, (though those should have been factors) but because he knew I was working toward becoming an English teacher.

He said, and I quote: "It's criminal that we don't train teachers in the grammar and structure of AAVE.  If you're teaching black kids, you should know the basics of AAVE."

What do you guys think?  First, do you think it should be treated as a second language or as another dialect of English?  And, do you think that we should train teachers in AAVE so they can better relate to and teach black students?

I'm not trying to start a topic without giving my opinion, honestly I'm still formulating one.  I don't know much about AAVE, beyond what the media brouhaha over Ebonics in the Oakland school system reported, and from my reading of more scholarly sources, the media didn't get things quite right.  So I'm reading and studying and thought I might get the thoughts of some of you guys who've much more experience in linguistic study than me.  

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English & Linguistics / Linguistics midterm on Monday....I'm scared

« on: October 08, 2006, 04:28:15 PM »

We should get it back tomorrow.  And he most emphatically does NOT grade on a curve.

On the bright side, we are doing syntax right now and it's fun.    

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English & Linguistics / Linguistics midterm on Monday....I'm scared

« on: October 03, 2006, 11:43:10 AM »

Well, it was easy.

I am pretty sure I did well, I got together with some other students after the test and we compared notes, and we all got the same answers on the big questions and are confident we're right.  So we're either all incredibly wrong, or we all made good grades. I think the latter is more likely.  

 

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English & Linguistics / Linguistics midterm on Monday....I'm scared

« on: October 01, 2006, 10:25:12 AM »

Pooka, I'm good on what you've posted.  I don't know any foreign languages, I just had two years of high school Spanish.

The thing that I was most shaky on was syllable diagramming.  I was having trouble keeping all the terminology straight, but my linguistics textbook has a companion website with additional information and after studying it, I think I have it now.  

I know for a fact there will be phonology problems where we have to identify whether two phones are separate phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme, but we did a lot of those in class and I feel pretty good about it.  We've already had a quiz on phonology and I made an A on it so I'm pretty solid with my IPA transcription.  We will have to identify features on the midterm but he's supplying a feature chart, so that helps tremendously.

I'm just scared because there will be little room for error - the test is worth 200 points and he said there are 5 or 6 questions only.  So one slip up and you're in trouble.  He does give partial credit however.  

I'll let you know tomorrow afternoon how it went, I'm probably going to be off the computer studying the rest of the day.  Thanks for helping out.  

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English & Linguistics / Linguistics midterm on Monday....I'm scared

« on: September 29, 2006, 06:43:58 PM »

Pooka, that would be a yes.

It's always some wonky language no one speaks, because we have speakers of German, Italian, Arabic and Spanish in our class so our problems are in things like Swampy Cree and Mokilese.    

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English & Linguistics / Linguistics midterm on Monday....I'm scared

« on: September 29, 2006, 01:19:25 PM »

I hate morphology.  There.  I said it.

We had a quiz on phonology and I did well, but he said there will only be a few IPA transcription problems on the midterm, most of it will be morphology.  I don't feel good about that at all.

Are any places online with good practice problems for phonology and morphology?