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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper that summarizes and analyzes three chapters from Keith Gilyard's Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competence. The writer argues that this text provides a useful tool to those students contemplating careers in education as English teachers, particularly in regards to students who are white. This is because Gilyard, as an African American English teacher, draws on his personal experience to discuss aspects of the problem of transmitting language skills in Standard English to African American students. This examination of Gilyard's text profiles the conclusions and themes presented in three representative chapters. No additional sources cited.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khgilyad.rtf
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in regards to students who are white. This is because Gilyard, as an African American English teachers, draws on his personal experience to discuss aspects of the problem of transmitting
language skills in Standard English to African American students. The following examination of Gilyards text profiles the conclusions and themes presented in three representative chapters. Chapter 3: Rapping Reading
and Role-playing : The first thing that Gilyard does in this chapter is inform the reader about the ongoing debate in academic circles regarding the nature and use of Black
English (that is, the English dialect employed by many African Americans). Gilyard outlines the parameters of this controversy, arguing that Black English has been determined to be a complete linguistic
system that follows consistent internal rules. Gilyard then gives the reader a quick overview of the ways in which Black English differs from Standard English and how these differences have
been perceived by linguistic scholars. In so doing, he shows how black students are not making "errors" when their language differs from Standard English usage, but rather that they are
speaking their "native tongue." Gilyard then goes on to discuss how black children learn to become bidialectal speakers, that is, that they learn to switch between the Standard English
dialect and Black English depending on the social situation. Because the authors mother patterned this, by the time Gilyard was old enough for school he carried with him into that
experience "a tremendously empowering repertoire of speaking and listening skills when I shuffled off to public school and continued to expand it once I arrived" (33). The implication in
this section is that the attitude with which English teachers approach the use of Black English can be significant. While Gilyard is not suggesting that schools abandon the teaching of
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