This purpose of this study was to determine the socio-cultural impact and parameters of Hip-Hop Based Education (HHBE) with the underlying goals of: a) detailing HHBE in relation to previously accepted education paradigms and philosophies; b) detailing the embedded nature of the language of hip-hop in the form of an amalgamation of African…

This article explores the pedagogical potential of closely reading and writing hardboiled detective fiction in a Canadian secondary English Language Arts classroom. Grounded in narrative theory and co-taught with a local high-school teacher, the unit focused on the cynical narration and stylistic elements of authors like Raymond Chandler and…

This article tackles a phenomenon in Urban Jordanian Arabic (UJA) where young individuals (mainly females) in Amman, the capital of Jordan, add the Arabic suffix -?k, which is glossed as second female singular or as a possessive pronoun, to English loanwords to sound more "modern," for example, "I love you" becomes [l?vv?k].…

By extending the notion of metroethnicity, this paper proposes the notion of metrolingualism, creative linguistic practices across borders of culture, history and politics. Metrolingualism gives us a way to move beyond current terms such as "multilingualism" and "multiculturalism". It is a product of modern and often urban interaction, describing…

Background/Context: Although progress has been made since members of the Conference on College Composition and Communication passed the Students' Right to Their Own Language resolution (1974), there still remains a demand to examine youth perceptions of language. Such examinations can help teachers and researchers improve curricular choices, honor…

This glossary identifies and defines approximately a thousand words, terms, and slang applied to city life. Three goals exist for this limited glossary: 1) identifying some of the most relevant urban terms for the expert and layman; 2) defining them simply and accurately, expanding on the definition where clarification is necessary; and, 3) adding…

Suggests that Ebonics deserves respect as a genuine spoken dialect, widely used and important in American culture. Notes that students who are fluent in it benefit when they are allowed to add standard English to their repertoire and taught the appropriate occasions for each way of speaking. (RS)

The report discusses and recommends a taxonomy of ethnic terms for federal agencies to use when collecting, reporting, and maintaining data on race and ethnicity. Standardization is necessary so that whatever categories the different agencies use can be aggregated, disaggregated, or other wise combined so that the data developed by one agency can…

Traces the history of the speech of New Yorkers, compares the speech of New Yorkers with the speech of those living elsewhere in America, and discusses the low prestige of New York City pronunciation. (DD)

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to a number of syntactic phenomena in modern English, specifically but not exclusively in British English, that can be characterized as urban/suburban near-standard usage. These phenomena are representative of a type of feature that has to date received relatively little attention from linguists. One…

A discussion and clarification of various forms and levels of Black English is provided together with a conjugation of the verb "to be" outlining the levels of meanings as used by most divergent black speakers. (EH)

This paper explores how one facet of the process by which ideology about linguistic variation originates and circulates. It analyzes an archive consisting of newspaper articles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about Pittsburgh speech, the earliest of which is from 1910. The articles began appearing regularly during the 1950s-60s. First, the paper…

An analysis of the communication process focusing on approaches to eliminating barriers to communication between teachers and inner-city students. An addendum lists instructional materials that are aimed at facilitating this process. (EH)