Ebony + Phonics By Corrine Wetherbee

 Originally defined by Dr. Robert Williams in 1973  His definition sought to combine the words “ebony” with “phonics” to mean “black sounds”  Original definition aimed to describe the “multinational linguistic results of the African slave trade”

 Ebonics is the equivalent of Black English and is considered to be a dialect of English (Tolliver-Weddington 1979)  Ebonics is the antonym of Black English and is considered to be a language other than English (Smith 1997)  Ebonics refers to language among all people of African descent throughout the African Diaspora (Blackshire-Belay 1996)

 Ebonics gained publicity in 1996, when the Oakland School Board of Oakland, CA, named Ebonics as the language of 28,000 African- American students within the district  At the 1997 meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, a resolution passed, stating the Ebonics is a dialect of the English language  Ebonics is now commonly referred to as African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), although AAVE does not refer specifically to the history of the slave trade as Ebonics does

 Implications on education vary greatly depending on which definition is recognized  If educational policies extend services to students who speak native languages other than English, should bilingual services, for example, extend to native AAVE speakers?  Educators agree that many African American students are at a disadvantage when they lack adequate knowledge of standard English  Ultimately, the goal is to help students of all backgrounds, including those who speak AAVE, to become proficient in standard English as a means to help them succeed