WILLIAMS: EBONICS NEED NOT BE TAUGHT

Schools don't need to teach Ebonics because students are already fluent, Dr. Robert L. Williams told a group at Southeast Missouri State University Center Tuesday night.

Williams named the black dialect in 1973. He wrote the book "Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks" and has studied ways of using Ebonics as a tool to increase the learning potential of black students.

Ebonics became heatedly debated last year when the Oakland, Calif., School District recognized it as a viable language. Williams said the district never decided to teach the language, as has been widely reported.

Williams, a professor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, said Ebonics is a varied form of standard English just as American-English is a congealed version of true English. He said if teachers recognized the fact that most African-Americans learn Ebonics as their first dialect it would provide a bridge to teaching those students standard English.

"If you want to teach someone French you don't use all French words; you use English to build a bridge to French," he said.

Williams said a study was conducted using transitional books that led students from Ebonics to standard English. The books used the same story written three ways: the first entirely in Ebonics, the second in half-Ebonics half-standard English, and the third entirely in standard English.

He said the group using this method over four months advanced significantly faster than those using a traditional all-standard-English teaching method.

Williams said he has translated standard-English terms used in intelligence quotient tests to Ebonics terms and administered both tests to African-American students. Many of the questions written in standard-English the black students failed because the terms used were not familiar to them. When the test was administered in Ebonics those same students' scores went up dramatically.

As an example, he said the test showed students a drawing of a living room and asked them to point to the toy "behind the sofa." Many black students failed. When reworded as point to the toy "in back of the couch," nearly all the students passed. Williams said the black students recognized the word couch as opposed to sofa.

"The point is to start where that child is and take that child to another level of understanding," Williams said.

Williams said the basis of Ebonics can be traced back to many African dialects. It is not a slang or a case of blacks being lazy in their linguistics; it is a language that is passed down from generation to generation and is ingrained with the black culture.

Rob Schneider, an audience member, asked Williams if Ebonics wouldn't eventually make itself extinct if teachers were to use his method of teaching standard-English from it.

Williams replied that since the language is a part of the culture he does not see it disappearing. He did say everyone should strive to speak standard-English as clearly as possible for appropriate situations.

"But when you get with the brothers and the sisters, get down," he said.

John Smith, a Southeast student, asked if it was plausible to teach Caucasian teachers Ebonics.

Williams replied it is not necessary to teach them Ebonics. If a student uses a word or phrase a teacher is not familiar with that teacher should ask the student to clarify it.

"If teachers want to teach a child they should know something about that child's culture," he said. "It's not teaching Ebonics; it's teaching sensitivity."