The largest assignment we had this semester was an argument-driven research paper. I chose to pursue the same topic I used for the previous phase, code-switching in America. My argument was, why isn’t BVE socially accepted as much as “Standard English is”.The purpose of this research paper was to learn how to incorporate and use peer reviewed sources into an argument to build off of that while also maintaining your credibility, and I believe that I attempted my best with trying to incorporate these learning goals. My target audience is the same as the previous unit, Black people in America, as I feel they’re the ones who can relate the most to my argument. While writing this essay I’ve gained the skill of composing my first draft and revising for meaningful/effective communication, which has helped me better I condense my thoughts for this topic as shown in my essay attached. 

Original:

The social acceptance of BVE

Language, the most known form of communication between living beings. Between humans specifically, we have developed several languages to communicate with different types of people. In  America, in particular, they use a form of language we know as English. Over the course of many years, the language has developed, changed, and adapted to the people who live in Americs. Stretching back through thousands of years of history, there are people of different races, ethnicities, and even cultures that live in America. Even if this diversity is a true statement, some believe that there is one and only way of speaking and writing. This is known as “Standard English”. It’s seen as something where there is a level of “correctness”: having proper grammar, being very articulate, and not using “slang”. This version of what they define as “slang or inappropriate” language is what we know as black vernacular English, BVE for short. Although it is recognized linguistically as its own language, socially, it is not widely accepted, specifically in settings in school.

Although many understand the general idea of what “Standard English” is, they don’t understand how it has affected students. “Standard English” is a power dynamic, one that is very similar to the concept of racism, especially in America. In America if you are a person of color, you are seen as the minority: who others become afraid/wary of, who don’t receive as many benefits socially or economically, and are generally just seen as less than others simply because you are not white. Similarly, as it’s referenced in the article “The Inevitability of ‘Standard’ English: Discursive Constructions of Standard Language Ideologies” Bethany Davila explains that “Standard English” plays a role in hegemony, which is the understanding of and about “Standard English”, not those who only benefit by having power, but also protect those in power, as well as standard English from critique (Davila pg.129). This goes to show if you don’t use “proper English“ that you will be viewed as less than others. From applying to jobs to even presenting a class presentation, “Standard English” has a grip on us all. Even those who write peer-reviewed and scholarly articles/books, if they don’t use this “correct“ form of English, it’ll be seen as something un-scholarly. 

Many people feel as though BVE, also known as Black Vanacualar English, is “Gen-Z” language or just slang, something that’s seen as inappropriate. Words such as “buggin’ ” or “period” stem from black culture, but many people, professors, and teachers specifically see this as something that’s not fit within the classroom. The question we should be asking ourselves is “Why?” Why are African Americans forced to code switch, to accommodate for what’s seen as “correct” if BVE is considered its own language?

This then urges the question, when did we start learning this form of English and when did we start seeing this as the only/correct way of speaking and or writing? In America in particular, this stems from our early childhood in the classroom. From learning our ABCs to preparing for our PALS exams to even our state exams, and eventually, our SAT/ACT, all of our life, students in America, specifically in New York, have been trained to memorize the “correct” form of speaking. In the article “Factoring AAVE into Reading Assessment and Instruction” they present a poem: 

“’ T’was the night before Christmas An’ all t’ru de house

Dey don’t a t’ing pass

Not even a mouse.” (Trosclair, 2000) (Cartwright, Wheeler, and Swords pg. 416)

Reading this poem, the students read it in the way they felt were “correct“. By using standard English, when in actuality, they were meant to use what the text describes it, the dialect that they learned from their homes, also known as BVE. Comparing this to the article, “ the problem of linguistic double consciousness” this shows how standard English is for. From a young age, students are forced to learn code-switching. They develop what is known as double consciousness, which is the duality of a person; being able to code switch. In New York specifically, BVE has been adopted and used by many different races and ethnicities. With this being the case, BVE, especially for African-Americans has been their way of speaking daily. Once entering a classroom setting, they are forced to learn this “proper“ framework of how to read, write, and articulate their thoughts. On the off chance that students were to use BVE, it would be seen as incorrect. Using the same example that’s presented above, the poem, if such students were to read it with an accent, or using their BVE, would they actually get a proper grade or would they be punished for speaking something that they felt was normal?

Many feel as though preserving the language, “Standard English”, is essential. The piece “The Language Wars” written by Robert MacNeil and William Cran, broke down the debate between prescriptivists, those who feel the language should be preserved, and descriptivists, who think the opposite, that there isn’t a correct way to speak or write. They illustrate both positions with interviews with figures/ people on each side. They introduce a person named John Simon who has learned several languages outside of English, attend Havard, and even wrote his dictionary (MacNeil and Cran pg. 202-203). He is an active prescriptivist who feels that “the state of our language is ‘unhealthy, poor, sad, depressing and probably fairly hopeless.’” (MacNeil and Cran pg. 202). He along with many other prescriptivists feels that there is a correct and one way to “English” when on the contrary language is fluid. In the Ted Talk video “3 Ways to Speak English” Jamila Lyiscott through her video describes her challenges while also celebrating her usage of her different ways to speak English. What many people fail to realize is that there isn’t a correct way to speak. People based on their upbringings, culture, and ethnicity have different ways of speaking/communicating with each other. The perspectivist should enjoy their language, and their form of English, while also allowing people like me and Lyiscott to co-exist with speaking in BVE. Understanding this, not just linguistically but also socially is very important.

An article written by Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue” was written to discuss her challenges along with her mother growing up as her mother was an immirgant who couldn’t speak proper English. In relation to people who speak BVE, the twos experiences are very similar. In the text Amy describes a scene in which she and her mother were visiting the doctors office because of a brain tummor. When the mother was speaking to said doctor in “her best English” they refused to listen to her, but when her daughter came to speak to the doctor, a person who was born and raised in America to speak “proper and Standard English”, the quickly understood and had gotten the things they had needed. (Tan, page 420). This in relation to the text “Language Wars” where there are the prespectivist, those who believe there is only one way to speak English and that is the correct way, we can see Amy Tan’s mother experiencing this first hand. Just because the mother didn’t speak “properly or correct” the doctors tried to ignore/deny what she was requesting. People who use BVE experience similar situations in which solely based of how they speak and what language they use they’ll be discriminated against. They’ll be seen as less than.

The importance of having this conversation is to collectively find ideas and results to try and enforce this change. In New York, the majority of the residents have adopted BVE within their language. From phrases such as “be for real” and “are you dumb?” it has spread across NY. Within the casual high school setting those phrases are used to chat and have fun with students and their peers. With this knowledge of how the language of BVE has adappted/intergrated into our daily lives has caused people internally to relate the language to our day to day speech. Something that they, people, think is their everyday speech; which in relation causes teachers to believe this language is improper. Some things we can do to help change this is to first reconstruct the way we think. A lot of people relate BVE language to Gen-Z and thus many just think it is just another form of slang. When in actuality BVE is it’s own language. 

Another thing we can do is to incorporate workshops for teachers that teach while also making the teachers more culturally aware for the sake of their students. I feel that there are many teachers who don’t really understand the depth of history behind minorities especially with Black people in America. If they were to get a little more understanding of their history, what they stand for and how our laguage (BVE) is important to them, it would create a more comfortable space of children to be in. We should also consider for the department of education to try and employ more immigrant teachers. This way we could steadily normilize the different culturals and become more aware so that we can build an even better environment within the education system. 

It might not be done immediately but there are steps that we as a society can take to making BVE a more socially accepted language. Although it may not be seen as important to prescriptivist or those who are not minorites, but for those of us who are, it would mean a great deal. It would help create spaces for people of color, specifically black high schoolers who reside in New York. Many have adopted the language within their own as they do with others cultures as we are a diverse state. While this might be the case, it is still a language that was cultivated for black peopele. A way for us to communicate, not slang. As a black and queer person who grew up in America there are so many challenges I have to face simply because of who I am; being able to create a space where BVE more socially accepted would help people like me connect back to their cultural roots, making life more liveable. “Standard English” may be improtant to some people, but it doesn’t give those same people the right to discard other languages that have significance to a certain group of people.

Bibliography

Cohen, Samuel S., and Amy Tan. “Mother Tongue.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston, MA, 2004, pp. 416–423. 

Davila, Bethany. “The Inevitability of ‘Standard’ English.” Written Communication, vol. 33, no. 2, 2016, pp. 127–148., https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088316632186. 

Looker-Koenigs, Samantha, et al. “Langue Wars.” Language Diversity and Academic Writing, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston, MA, 2018, pp. 198–211. 

Lyiscott, Jamila, director. 3 Ways to Speak English. YouTube, YouTube, 19 June 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9fmJ5xQ_mc&t=165s. Accessed 17 Oct. 2022. 

Wheeler, Rebecca, et al. “Factoring AAVE into Reading Assessment and Instruction.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 65, no. 6, 2012, pp. 416–425., https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.01063. Wheeler, Rebecca, et al. “Factoring AAVE into Reading Assessment and Instruction.” The Reading Teacher, vol. 65, no. 6, 2012, pp. 416–425., https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.01063.

Revised:

The social acceptance of BVE

Language: the most known form of communication between living beings. Between humans specifically, we have developed several languages to communicate with different types of people. In  America, in particular, they use a form of language we know as English. Over the course of many years, the language has developed, changed, and adapted to the people who live in Americas. Stretching back through thousands of years of history, there are people of different races, ethnicities, and even cultures that live in America. Even if this diversity is a true statement, some believe that there is one and only way of speaking and writing. This is known as “Standard English”. It’s seen as something where there is a level of “correctness”: having proper grammar, being very articulate, and not using “slang”. This version of what they define as “slang or inappropriate” language is what we know as black vernacular English, BVE for short. Although it is recognized linguistically as its own language, socially, it is not widely accepted, specifically in settings in school.

Although many understand the general idea of what “Standard English” is, they don’t understand how it has affected students. “Standard English” is a power dynamic, one that is very similar to the concept of racism, especially in America. In America if you are a person of color, you are seen as the minority: who others become afraid/wary of, who don’t receive as many benefits socially or economically, and are generally just seen as less than others simply because you are not white. Similarly, as it’s referenced in the article “The Inevitability of ‘Standard’ English: Discursive Constructions of Standard Language Ideologies” Bethany Davila explains that “Standard English” plays a role in hegemony, which is the understanding of and about “Standard English”, not those who only benefit by having power, but also protect those in power, as well as standard English from critique (Davila pg.129). This goes to show if you don’t use “proper English“ that you will be viewed as less than others. From applying to jobs to even presenting a class presentation, “Standard English” has a grip on us all. If one were to apply to a job and during the interview they were to use BVE they would be seen as someone less than because they aren’t speaking “proper”. Even those who write peer-reviewed and scholarly articles/books, if they don’t use this “correct“ form of English, it’ll be seen as something un-scholarly. 

Many people feel as though BVE, also known as Black Vanacualar English, is “Gen-Z” language or just slang, something that’s seen as inappropriate. Words such as “buggin’ ” or “period” stem from black culture, but many people, professors, and teachers specifically see this as something that’s not fit within the classroom. The question we should be asking ourselves is “Why?” Why are African Americans forced to code switch, to accommodate for what’s seen as “correct” if BVE is considered its own language?

This then urges the question, when did we start learning this form of English and when did we start seeing this as the only/correct way of speaking and or writing? In America in particular, this stems from our early childhood in the classroom. From learning our ABCs to preparing for our PALS exams to even our state exams, and eventually, our SAT/ACT, all of our life, students in America, have been trained to memorize the “correct” form of speaking. In the article “Factoring AAVE into Reading Assessment and Instruction” they present a poem: 

“’ T’was the night before Christmas An’ all t’ru de house

Dey don’t a t’ing pass

Not even a mouse.” (Trosclair, 2000) (Cartwright, Wheeler, and Swords pg. 416)

Reading this poem, the students read it in the way they felt were “correct“. By using standard English, when in actuality, they were meant to use what the text describes it, the dialect that they learned from their homes, also known as BVE. Instead of reading the poem as is, they would say “T’was the night before Christmas and all through the huse, they don’t hear a thing pass, not even a mouse”. Comparing this to the article, “ the problem of linguistic double consciousness” this shows how standard English is for. From a young age, students are forced to learn code-switching. They develop what is known as double consciousness, which is the duality of a person; being able to code switch. In New York specifically, BVE has been adopted and used by many different races and ethnicities. With this being the case, BVE, especially for African-Americans has been their way of speaking daily. Once entering a classroom setting, they are forced to learn this “proper“ framework of how to read, write, and articulate their thoughts. On the off chance that students were to use BVE, it would be seen as incorrect. Using the same example that’s presented above, the poem, if such students were to read it with an accent, or using their BVE, would they actually get a proper grade or would they be punished for speaking something that they felt was normal?

Many feel as though preserving the language, “Standard English”, is essential. The piece “The Language Wars” written by Robert MacNeil and William Cran, broke down the debate between prescriptivists, those who feel the language should be preserved, and descriptivists, who think the opposite, that there isn’t a correct way to speak or write. They illustrate both positions with interviews with figures/ people on each side. They introduce a person named John Simon who has learned several languages outside of English, attend Havard, and even wrote his dictionary (MacNeil and Cran pg. 202-203). He is an active prescriptivist who feels that “the state of our language is ‘unhealthy, poor, sad, depressing and probably fairly hopeless.’” (MacNeil and Cran pg. 202). He along with many other prescriptivists feels that there is a correct and one way to “English” when on the contrary language is fluid. In the Ted Talk video “3 Ways to Speak English” Jamila Lyiscott through her video describes her challenges while also celebrating her usage of her different ways to speak English. What many people fail to realize is that there isn’t a correct way to speak. People based on their upbringings, culture, and ethnicity have different ways of speaking/communicating with each other. The perspectivist should enjoy their language, and their form of English, while also allowing people like me and Lyiscott to co-exist with speaking in BVE. Understanding this, not just linguistically but also socially is very important.

An article written by Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue” was written to discuss her challenges along with her mother growing up as her mother was an immigrant who couldn’t speak proper English. In relation to people who speak BVE, the two experiences are very similar. In the text Amy describes a scene in which she and her mother were visiting the doctors office because of a brain tummor. When the mother was speaking to said doctor in “her best English” they refused to listen to her, but when her daughter came to speak to the doctor, a person who was born and raised in America to speak “proper and Standard English”, the quickly understood and had gotten the things they had needed. (Tan, page 420). This in relation to the text “Language Wars” where there are the perspectivist, those who believe there is only one way to speak English and that is the correct way, we can see Amy Tan’s mother experiencing this first hand. Just because the mother didn’t speak “properly or correct” the doctors tried to ignore/deny what she was requesting. People who use BVE experience similar situations in which solely based of how they speak and what language they use they’ll be discriminated against. Although Amy Tan’s situation delt mainly with vocabulary, similar to black people beased on the words we used we’ll be seen as less than. 

The importance of having this conversation is to collectively find ideas and results to try and enforce this change. In New York, the majority of the residents have adopted BVE within their language. From phrases such as “be for real” and “are you dumb?” it has spread across NY. Within the casual high school setting those phrases are used to chat and have fun with students and their peers. With this knowledge of how the language of BVE has adappted/intergrated into our daily lives has caused people internally to relate the language to our day to day speech. Something that they, people, think is their everyday speech; which in relation causes teachers to believe this language is improper. Some things we can do to help change this is to first reconstruct the way we think. A lot of people relate BVE language to Gen-Z and thus many just think it is just another form of slang. When in actuality BVE is it’s own language. 

Another thing we can do is to incorporate workshops for teachers that teach while also making the teachers more culturally aware for the sake of their students. I feel that there are many teachers who don’t really understand the depth of history behind minorities especially with Black people in America. If they were to get a little more understanding of their history, what they stand for and how our laguage (BVE) is important to them, it would create a more comfortable space of children to be in. We should also consider for the department of education to try and employ more immigrant teachers. This way we could steadily normilize the different culturals and become more aware so that we can build an even better environment within the education system. 

It might not be done immediately but there are steps that we as a society can take to making BVE a more socially accepted language. Although it may not be seen as important to prescriptivist or those who are not minorites, but for those of us who are, it would mean a great deal. It would help create spaces for people of color, specifically black high schoolers who reside in New York. Many have adopted the language within their own as they do with others cultures as we are a diverse state. While this might be the case, it is still a language that was cultivated for black peopele. A way for us to communicate, not slang. As a black and queer person who grew up in America there are so many challenges I have to face simply because of who I am; being able to create a space where BVE more socially accepted would help people like me connect back to their cultural roots, making life more liveable. “Standard English” may be improtant to some people, but it doesn’t give those same people the right to discard other languages that have significance to a certain group of people.