Teaching AAVE in Chinese ESL classroom

胡波

African American Vernacular English （AAVE） is the language spoken by some African American groups. According to Dillard， there are 18 to 20 million speakers of AAVE who are mostly lower level African Americans. Some European American， Hispanic American， and other non-African background American also adopted AAVE， and these people usually live in or close to the African American neighborhood. （Dillard， 1975， P. 9）

Most researchers agreed that AAVE is an “independent language”， while others believe that AAVE is a “dialect of Standard English”. According to Kuang， AAVE has “…evolved from the concept ‘human language， to ‘language variety， ‘dialect and finally to ‘independent language” （Kuang， 2009）.  Through all these processes， AAVE had became a real language， and found its place in the language community.

There are still debates on the developments of AAVE. As Rickford mentioned in his work， the two major issues are the "Creole origins issue" and "divergence issue". The Creole origins issue argues about whether AAVE is derived from Creole languages such as： Gullah， English-based creoles of Jamaica， Trinidad， Guyana， Hawaii or Sierra Leone two or three hundred years ago.  The "divergence issue" argues about the divergence of AAVE from European American （white American） dialect in the U.S. （Rickford， 1998）.

The writer personally strongly suggests bringing rap and AAVE content into Chinese ESL curriculum. People usually call American a “melting pot”. With the expansion of this “melting pot”， Standard English is no longer the only and the prestige language used in U.S. society.  Noticing and understanding the change of language verities of the U.S. culture are the keys to help us to understand American culture and to learn Standard American English. Therefore， Chinese ESL teachers should try to introduce more AAVE and rap contents to students. The culture information and language varieties learned from AAVE will bring fresh air to Chinese English study.

Some Chinese teachers may doubt about the negative impacts brought from the conflicts of AAVE and SE， and it is totally understandable. To be honest， AAVE really is a totally different language for most of students especially for those who had never heard of AAVE before. It may seem like learning a totally new language for them， with new grammar system， spelling， semantics， and pronunciation， surely it will be a challenge for students. Even some Chinese English teachers may have problem understanding AAVE slangs and syntax， let alone teaching.

Within U.S.， whether to apply AAVE education in school systems had also been a problem. Major concerns about AAVE are its conflicts with Standard English， and some misunderstanding of the structure of AAVE.  For those students who are confused with AAVE and SAE rules， Kuang suggested in his article “…the teachers can help black students recognize language diversity through comparing， translating， and provide linguistic variety knowledge of AAVE and SE” （Kuang， 2009）. Apparently， this comparing， translating， providing linguistic variety skill could also be used in Chinese ESL classrooms， to help students to distinguish the differences.

At the end of his article， Kuang raised a question： “Can educator teach students the prestige language while still promoting the acceptance of AAVE as a dialect of the Standard English language” （Kuang， 2009）？  According to Kuang， the answer is an obvious “yes”.  Though Kuangs article is much more of discussing about AAVEs position in American school system， it still brings the same idea to us， Chinese English teachers， that we should not avoid AAVE in Chinese ESL classes.

References

Dillard， J.L. （1975）. General introduction： perspectives on Black English. The Hague： Mouton.

Kuang， G. （2009）. The pedagogical value of African American vernacular English . US-China Foreign Language， 7（8）， 61-64.

Rickford， J. R. （1998）. The Creole origins of African American vernacular English： evidence from copula absence. In S. Mufwene， J. Rickford， G. Bailey， & J. Baugh （Eds.）， African American English . London： Routledge.