Unit 6 Black English

I Teaching objectives

1. Understanding the various aspects related to the usage of words. 2. Cultivating a sense of appropriateness in style

3. Learning methods of constructing narration in a writing. 4.

II Teaching time: six class periods

III Teaching Procedures Step 1 library work Black English

Black English is the language of black Americans. But not all 36 million African Americans choose to speak black English, especially the educated middle and upper income blacks. The variety of English spoken by some black people in the US. In the United States, the term Black English usually refers to the everyday spoken varieties of English used by African Americans, especially of the working class in urban neighborhoods or rural communities.Linguists generally prefer the term African American Vernacular English, although some use the term Ebonics,which saw widespread use in the late 1990s.It is an error to suppose that Black English is spoken by all African Americans regardless of their background. In fact,the English spoken by African Americans is highly varied—as varied as the English spoken by any other racial or ethnic group. Sometimes Black English is used to refer to other varieties of English spoken by Black people outside of the United States,as in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom. 1.Phonetic differences

As for phone, the most prominent phonetic character is the simplification of consonant clusters.

Words Black English Standard English

Passed /pa:s/ /pa:st/ Past /pa:s/ /pa:st/ Desk /des/ /desk/ The \

Voiceless/initial position: Voiced/initial position: SE: thing, thank, thigh, thought SE: this, that, them, these, those BE:thing, thank, thigh, thought(no deviation) BE: dis, dat, dem, dese, dose Voiceless/medial: Voiced/medial: SE: bathroom, birthday SE: mother, brother BE: bafroom, burfday BE: muvah, bruvah Voiceless/terminal:

SE: with,mouth, path, both, south BE: wif, mouf, paf, bof, souf 2.Lexical differences A.Spelling

E.g. There--dere, without--widout, don't know--dunno, zebra--aebray, himself--hisself Words that indicate the possessive:THEY for THEIR

SE: The boys put their hats... BE: The boys put they hats... B. Difference in meaning and usage

a. Be: 1) as a link verb, no change, meaning a habit e.g. She be late every day. 2) as a future tense e.g. I be going home tomorrow. 3) e.g. You are't sick,is you?

4) been as a past action e.g. He been there before. b. Done: 1) done equals did

2) e.g. I done my homework this morning.

3) as a completed action e.g. I done finish my work today. c. Regular verb without ed: 1) She look for me last night. Disagreement of verb and pronoun E.g. She have many friends.

Mixed usage of s e.g. Two girl just left.

3. Grammatical differences sentence structure of Black English

Be: 1) none-be rule e.g. He gone. She too tall.

2) it is or there go replacing there be e.g. It's many children on the playground. 3) double subject e.g. My son, he have a new car. 4) double negative e.g. David don't know nothing.

Step 2 organization of the text

Part 1 the phenomena of black english in American society (paragraph 1) Part 2 the social prejudices of black English (paragraph 2-3) Part 3 the factors that lead to black English (paragraph 4-6)

Part 4 the necessity of a proper attitude toward black English

Step 3 major language points

1 Schizophrenia: a long term mental disorder marked by breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, and withdrawal from reality.

Here means confusion and bewilderment black Americans feel about the nature of their speech which can be likened to the disorderly mental status of a patient of schizophrenia.

2 diglossia

Two forms or varieties of the same language exist side by side The High variety– education, formal The Low variety – casual, less standard…

3 Stigmatize: (stigma [ n.])

If someone or something is stigmatized, they are unfairly regarded by many people as being bad or having something to be ashamed of.

Children in single-parent families must not be stigmatized. 单亲家庭的孩子们不应该受到歧视。 The AIDS epidemic further stigmatized gays. 艾滋病的流行让人们更加瞧不起男同性恋者。

They are often stigmatized by the rest of society as lazy and dirty. 他们经常被社会中的其他人污蔑为懒惰、肮脏。

4 Elegant:

(1) pleasant and graceful (of sb.)

(2) Simple, clear, and clever ( of words, idea, plan etc. ) 5 Be tied up with = have close relationship with

6 attribute (V. \\N.)

(N.) a quality or feature that someone or something has. (1) Cruelty is a normal attribute of human behaviour. 残忍是人的天性之一。

(2) He has every attribute you could want and could play for any team. 他具备你想要的所有品质，放在哪个队都行。

(v. ) If you attribute something to an event or situation, you think that it was caused by that event or situation.

(2) Women tend to attribute their success to external causes such as luck. 女性倾向于将她们的成功归因于外部因素，比如运气。

8 anatomy

(1) the study of the structure of the bodies of people or animals. (2) body

E.g.: The ball hit him in the most sensitive part of his anatomy. 球击中了他身上最