"Ebonics"/African American Vernacular English and education

Lots of the kids would be learning about SAE – that’s the whole point of this thread, to help make sure AAVE kids best learn SAE. And I don’t see why different dialects belong in a different class, especially when the whole point of learning about the other common dialects is to help kids learn to speak SAE. Just by common sense, I think learning about other dialects will strengthen every kid’s grasp of SAE, since they’ll start to understand the distinctions for many of the rules, and they’ll start to understand that SAE isn’t “proper English” while other dialects are “improper English”, but SAE is “proper SAE” and other dialects are proper for their dialects.

I’m baffled why you’re so resistant to this, especially when you seem amenable to the goal of it. ISTM, just by common sense, that kids will better absorb language skills in a class specifically designed to teach language skills than another class. Even in the worst case, some English class time helps AAVE kids more than other kids. Why is that so much worse than some Social Studies class time helping AAVE kids more than other kids?

And that is why I asked “How does learning about different dialects help a non-AAVE speaking kid learn SAE?”

And the answer is “It doesn’t”, provided by another poster who I don’t want to quote since I don’t know the quoting rules anymore, but you can scroll to see the answer.

And I DON’T think that. So where does that leave us?

Why is it better?

I think it’s entirely reasonable to believe that it might.

Hopefully to trust well-meaning professionals like the researchers in the OP.

Wouldn’t kids better learn and absorb SAE in English class than other classes, in which the focus might be on something else?

And I think it’s not reasonable to believe that it might.

I didn’t see in the article where the researcher recommended that. Can you point it out?

Yes. That’s why SAE should be taught in English class. Not dialects of English.

To learn SAE, the kids need to be taught about AAVE as a dialect. That’s the whole point of the article. Teaching them about AAVE helps their SAE skills.

We’re probably at an impasse here. You haven’t actually presented a why for your position, and I’m still baffled.

I’m sorry, but are you saying that my kids need to be taught about AAVE in order for them to learn SAE?

No.