Re: Ebonic Plague

[Stephen Arrants <arrants -at- BRIGHTWARE -dot- COM>]

>----------
>From:  BrYan Westbrook[SMTP:westbrok -at- HSNP -dot- COM]
>Sent:  Friday, December 20, 1996 11:50 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       Ebonic Plague

>Since when does not being able to properly speak any language make one
>bilingual?

Um......since the language you DO speak isn't the language the listener
is most familiar and comfortable with?

>This entire decision is indicative of the welfare mentality.  Its
>proponents do not want to make the effort to learn to speak properly, so
>they want to have their laziness validated.  Listen to anyone on the news
>talking "ebonics" and see if you can take them as seriously as someone =
>who
>is talking proper English.

Um......If you read the full news reports, the school board is proposing
this in order to teach the students to communicate effectively, not
validate their 'laziness'.

I'm disturbed by your saying that someone taliking Ebonics can't be
taken as seriously as someone talking proper (sic) English.  Do you take
someone speaking witha  French accent less seriously than someone
speaking "proper" English? Someone from Minnesota as opposed to someone
from New York?  Someone from (fill in the blank) as opposed ro someone
from (Your Home Town)?

As technical communicators, we read/write/speak/hear different forms of
English every day, and convert it to a form suitable for an audience.
(Anyone else out there have to translate a 400-page software spec into a
User manual??)  Doesn't seem like much of a stretch to me to help
students who use a different form of English get up to speed in "proper"
English......


steve arrants