Black English Dialect<br > and the Classroom Teacher<br > Clara Franklin Alexander<br > Medgar Evers College， Brooklyn， New York<br > This article offers some practical suggestions for the classroom teac<br > teaching students who speak a black dialect. In order that the re~<br > know the context in which these classroom activities are propose<br > general discussion of black American dialect will precede them.<br > What is dialect7 Johnson (1977) maintains it is "a variety of a I;<br > ticular language that differs from other varieties in terms of its h<br > con， intonation， patterns， stress， grammar， and phonology."<br > All English-speaking persons speak some dialect of the langua<br > Indeed， Smitherman (1977) contends that "pure" English is an ".<br > stract." Some dialects， how ever， command more respect than othe<br > For example， many Americans are favorably impressed by a pers<br >who speaks the British dialect of the educated and "upper" class<br >while many Americans feel just the opposite about a person w<br >speaks a black dialect.<br >History of Black Dialect<br >How did black English evolve? Simply， it evolved the same way th<br >other dialects of English did--as a result of the culture， the envir0J<br >ment， the needs of the group， and contact with other languages. Tk<br >historical account below summarizes viewpoints of many linguist<br >though some points are subject to debate.<br > In the seventeenth century， the Portuguese， French， and Dutc<br >roved the coasts of Africa. As a result， black Portuguese， French， an<br >Dutch dialects were spoken by Africans who were in contact wit]<br >these Europeans. Black English began in the same way. The ancestor:<br >of most of the black people in the Western hemisphere came from thl<br >west coast of Africa， where there were hundreds of languages ~，itt<br >similar phonology and syntax. As the tendency in second languag~<br >