Clark notes that many AAVE speakers are aware of their short-comings andanxious about how this affects the way they are perceived.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a complicated and divisive issue thathighlights race, language superiority and the achievement gap in a way that the majority ofeducators, on all levels, avoid discussing.

In 1979 Justice Charles Joiner ruled that African American studentswere not allowed to be labeled “handicap” because of their use of AAVE. This Ann Arbor caseinvolved 11 African American students who were placed in a remedial special educationclassroom because of their linguistic heritage of AAVE.

The job of the educator is going to go beyond just reading apaper and responding, to involving themselves with the lives and concerns of the AAVE writers.

There islittle to no respect for the dialect, because the general public, along with speakers of AAVE,have often been taught the incorrectness in AAVE writing as opposed to the linguistic traditions.

Also, simply put, not all African Americans speak AAVE, and not all speakers294of AAVE are African Americans. There are members of the white community who are AAVEspeakers.

Whether or not the black participants knew they wouldunderstand the rules and intonation specific to AAVE, nearly all of them responded correctly.Just as many of the rules of SAVE are followed subconsciously, many speakers are not awarethat they are participating in an AAVE rules.

Many linguist who have studied AAVE-the words, sounds, dialects andlanguage structures- agree that it is a tangent of SAVE and Oakland’s use of it was“pedagogically sound” (Rickford 320). Understanding of the arrangement of AAVE, while notvilifying the incorrectness, allows students to appreciate the cultural value of AAVE while stillbeing able to communicate using the SAVE expected in the classroom.

Given this hyper-segregation,it is rare for my students tohave to codeswitch into SAEoutside of school. However, theysee examples of their elderscodeswitching when talking on thephone, visiting the doctor’s office,or in their workplaces

However, that advice—“Writethe way you speak” —cannot begiven to speakers of AAVE ormany other bilingual students.Instead, I have to say: “Write theway you would speak at a jobinterview in downtown Chicago.”

Students be told that vernacular language should be reserved for the playgroundwith friends or at a picnic with neighbors, and that standard English be used byprofessionals at work, in academic writing, and when communicating with importantofficials. However, the colloquial language of two white, middle-aged profession-als (Cleland and Rich), which appears in two of our nations most highly regardednewspapers prove this aint so, at least not no mo and prolly never was