We conclude our Black History Month blog series by highlighting effective classroom practices that validate speakers of African American English (AAE). We want to emphasize that no matter the students’ SES, race, learning difference or language ability, all children can learn to read through systematic and explicit instruction (Foorman et al., 2016). In addition, the evidence is clear that utilizing culturally appropriate teaching strategies can improve outcomes for dialectal speakers. Specific recommendations include:
- It’s important for educators to understand language variation and differences between General American English and AAE, and to teach the novel differences in written language during instructional time.
- Teachers also need to understand how the students' dialect may impact their oral reading and their writing, and then avoid stigmatizing these characteristics. Instead, culturally proficient teachers provide increased learning opportunities in early childhood and throughout elementary school that build upon students’ existing linguistic knowledge to create confident readers and writers in middle school and beyond (Washington and Seidenberg, 2021).
- Honor and affirm the language that students are loved in from the start. Early Childhood and Pre-K professionals can provide literacy rich environments, oral and written models of GAE and other varieties demonstrating that all varieties of language are valid systems for communicating.
- Engage in shared reading opportunities with culturally responsive texts and texts written from a variety of perspectives to expand world knowledge and foster meaningful opportunities to practice using language.
TABLE 2. Strategies to Increase Bidialectalism
Chart used with permission from Dr. Johnson
| Strategy | Language Component Targeted | Activity | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contrastive analysis | Pragmatics - Difference linguistic patterns are appropriate for different contexts | Sentence Sorts - Have students sort sentences into home or school language based on use of past tense -ed. | "Yesterday, I play kick ball" versus "I planted flowers last weekend." |
| Identification | Morphology - Receptive measure of student's knowledge of morphemes | Grammatical Feature Identification - Have students choose which grammatical feature is being used. | Mom found Tommy's lost sock under the sofa. |
| Transforming | Morphology & Syntax - Spoken sentences can be changed from AAE to MAE and vice versa | Cloze Sentences - Have students choose the word that would be appropriate for school language. | The (girl/girls) is finishing her snack. |
| Formulation | Morphology & Syntax - Expressive measure of student's knowledge sentence structure; can be done at either the sentence or connected text level | Sentence Creation - Provide students with a picture and have them create sentences using a target feature, such as plural -s. | Three dogs were running down the street. |
We hope this blog series has been eye opening and has led to professional dialogue on how to support culturally and linguistically diverse learners in the classroom.
Remember, all students are experts in language. The goal must be to respect children’s home language and culture, while helping them gain additional proficiency with the classroom English language variety to support their interactions with print.
References
- Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Educator’s practice guide. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Science, U.S. Department of Education.
- Johnson, L. & Gatlin-Nash, B (2020). Evidence-based practices in assessment and intervention of language-based reading difficulties among African-American learners. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 46(2), 19-23.
- Washington, J. A., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2021). Teaching Reading to African American Children: When Home and School Language Differ. American Educator, 45(2), 26.
