Attitudes of African American vernacular speakers towards technology
Abstract
In 1974, the Conference on College Composition and Communication presented the resolution, “Students Right To Their Own Language (SRTOL),” which “affirms the students’ right to their own patterns and varieties of language and asserts “that teachers must have the experiences and training that will enable them to respect diversity and uphold the right of students to their own language (CCCC Students’ Right). The resolution established what many teachers and scholars of composition already knew and still know today: that many of our minority students struggle with language differences. This issue is acknowledged within our discipline and members of our field, such as Lisa Delpit, Tom Fox, Keith Gilyard, Geneva Smitherman, and Victor Villanueva have studied nonstandard English speakers’ barriers in the classroom. In recent years many of our classrooms have changed, and they continue to change because technology has become an integral part of education. Our classrooms are more than classrooms that happen to have computers in them; they are now technology classrooms that use technology as literacy tools, and our students are expected to write, learn, and to think using technology. Students who may already be struggling with language barriers, such as speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), may now also be struggling to adapt to the technology they are expected to learn and use. In my dissertation, I use case studies to explore how AAVE speakers’ attitudes towards technology influence their language, identity, and perception of performance within a technology-based composition classroom.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Blackmon, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Rhetoric|Educational technology
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