Impotance of English
Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, aspects of minority culture have undergone intense scrutiny and have become the subject o highly charged political debate. Not the least of these aspects is the variety of minority speech, especially that of African Americans referred to as "Black English." "Why," many educational theorists ask, "shouldn’t the language of America’s inner cities have a place in a school’s curriculum?" Proponents say that Black English has useful refinements that Standard English lacks. For example, the use of the verb "be" can indicate a stable, on-going condition as in "He be working" which means, "He has a steady job" (McCrum, Cran, & MacNeil, 1988).However, perhaps just as many disagree. Despite the expressive qualities of Black English, or any non-standard dialect, there are many vital situations in which Standard English (the form taught in primary schools around the nation) has a decisive advantage
Furthermore, the economic successes of people, such as entrepreneur Joseph Kennedy and film mogul Samuel Goldwyn, descendents of ethnic groups who "adopted English with enthusiasm" point to the possibilities open to speaker of Standard English (Ibid). Also, a person speaking dialect can feel personally inadequate when dealing with others using a different dialect or Standard English. For example, a woman in the "American Tongues" video who spoke with a thick Louisiana accent tells other people that she is found attractive until she opens her mouth. Many educators have also noted the incompatibility of dialect with business success. Constance Clayton, the superintendent of schools in Philadelphia, referring to the dialect of her own ethnic group, once wrote, "I have yet to find Black English as beneficial in filling our a job application. Somehow those questions are not phrased in Black English…" (McCrum, Cran, & MacNeil, 1988). . To support this premise, we need to loo
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Approximate Word count = 661
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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