Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 05:54:16 -0700

From: Peter Farruggio pfarr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU

Subject: Re: Ebonics and LSA conference



The following was posted to another list. The wire service report of the

LSA conference resolution was also printed in the San Francisco Chronicle

last week and something in the report made it seem that the conference

endorsed the position that Ebonics is a language , not a dialect



Anybody know more about this?



Pete Farruggio

Oakland, CA









An article appeared in this morning's _Chicago Tribune_ discussing the

Linguistic Society of America conference that took place this week in

Chicago. It reports that a resolution was approved at the meeting

describing Ebonics as "a systematic and rule-governed method of

communication" and concluding that African-American students "could best

learn [standard English] if their native tongue was acknowledged and used

by their teachers in the classroom." The article goes on to say that this

position is consistent with extensive linguistics research dating back to

the '50's and that the current controversy arises from a "lack of credit"

accorded to research in this area.