This dissertation examined the use and variations of African American Language by middle school students. It focused on the relationships of African American Language to the social and cultural identities and academic achievements of students in educational settings. A second focus examined the educational complexities surrounding the uses of African American Language use by students in traditional classroom environments.
Over a seven-month period, data were collected on interactions involving the use of African American Language in an eighth grade language arts classroom. Key classroom events and student interviews were examined utilizing the cultural analysis of discourse, thematic, and microethnographic analysis. Also examined were the cultural models for the use and meaning of African American Language and for cultural identity held by five African American Language student speakers. The study also examined the central role of prosody in signaling particular social and cultural identities and explored the significance of students adopting such identities across varying spaces in and outside of the classroom as a means to navigate social existences in a predominantly African American school community.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-04022007-233823 |
| Date | 16 April 2007 |
| Creators | Williams, Cynthia Hansberry |
| Contributors | Professor Sheila Smith McKoy, Professor Kevin Leander, Professor Dennis Dickerson, Professor Lucius Outlaw, Jr., Professor David Bloome |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-04022007-233823/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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