The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

113
Niccole Scrogins
Fall 2008
African American Vernacular English and the Larger-Than-Academics Problem: Social, Economic, and
Educational Immobility and the Loss of Identity
There seems to be a growing awareness of the potential importance of our ever-changing textual
world and its effects on young writers, especially speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
whose nonstandard interaction with Standard American English (SAE) writing continues to obstruct their
academic and economic success. Many of these students are not only disadvantaged socially and economically,
but they also struggle educationally. Many of the obstacles they encounter are similar to those of multilingual
students who struggle with cultural and linguistic interference when learning SAE for academic purposes, all the
while trying to maintain their personal identities through their organic languages and cultures.
While SAE is institutionally preferred or standardized in academic writing, there may be a need to
accept a certain amount of AAVE writing characteristics in order to help AAVE speaking students transition into
SAE writing. It should not be our goal as tutors to extinguish the use of AAVE all together. Instead, we should
attempt to help these students become aware of the differences and give them the tools to use both appropriately
in any given context. Perhaps the adroit ability to move between these varied discourses can then be marveled
similar to that of a multilingual individual’s ability to code switch. If you have ever heard a bilingual speaker, say
of Spanish and English, utter a sentence that is made up of vocabulary from both languages, then you have
witnessed the phenomenon of code switching. This often happens to individuals who speak more than one
language and who are no longer translating vocabulary from their native language to the second language in order
to speak. Essentially, code switching occurs when a multilingual speaker thinks in more than one language at a
time. This is an important skill to teach AAVE speaking students if we want to see them succeed in the academy.
More crucially, speakers of AAVE who do not acquire standardized writing practices are left little room for
socioeconomic advancement. These socioeconomic and vertical mobility disadvantages haunt many speakers of
AAVE culturally, academically, and vocationally. However, as a word of caution to avoid racially stereotyping
African Americans, it is imperative to remember that not all African Americans are speakers of AAVE, some
speakers of AAVE are of other ethnicities, and being a speaker of AAVE is not necessarily an indication of an
AAVE writer.
Stratification can be particularly immobilizing for the successful career advancement of speakers
of AAVE with a less than stellar socioeconomic status. AAVE prevents many capable job candidates from either
getting a job for which they are qualified or being promoted to do jobs they may have otherwise earned if their
use of AAVE was not stigmatized. The stratification of SAE above other varied dialects of English has created a
social stratification of speakers of those dialects, especially AAVE, which affects individuals’ lives in many
contexts, including their careers. Walker asserts, “A possibility must be stressed that, with becoming standard,
there is one less barrier to entrance into the mainstream of society. For example, a job interviewer will not be able
to use English as an excuse for not considering a black person for a job” (1977, p. 42). Donlan also recognizes the
effect social stratification has on successful mobility and argues “that America’s schools must provide the
instruction necessary to free the growing number of disadvantaged from a hapless future of continued poverty and
frustration” (1974, p. 261). But I think Joan Baratz’s succinct words, as quoted in Fasold & Shuy, resonate the
genuine issue: “In refusing to teach standard English to these [students] we cut off even further their possibility of
entering the mainstream of American life” (1970, p.26). Although this is much more general and in response to
the issue of neglecting to address AAVE features and teach SAE, the issue is not who should be responsible for
the acquisition of SAE, but merely that it is fundamental for the mobile, social, and cultural success of a large
demographic of society. Essentially, there is much more at stake for these students than grades or passing a class.
When tutoring speakers of AAVE, it is necessary to maintain a keen sensitivity to what more these students have
to lose.