Kommentar |
Whether in music, on TV or in the movies, African American Vernacular English has become a prominent feature of the media landscape in the U.S. Yet this variety of English has a rather complicated position in American society at large. In this course we will shortly examine the linguistic features that characterize AAVE before moving on to the central questions that will guide our seminar: How are African American Vernacular English and its speakers positioned and portrayed in the media? What is the cultural role of AAVE and what does its use mean to the individual, the group and mainstream society? And finally, how can or how should students and teachers cope with AAVE (or any other non-standard variety for that matter) in the classroom? |