Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competence

by Keith Gilyard

Overview

An exploration of the key issues of language education for African Americans.

A unique blend of memoir and scholarship, Keith Gilyard's Voices of the Self is a penetrating analysis of the linguistic and cultural "collision" experienced by African-American students in the public education system. Gilyard examines black students "negotiate" their way through school and discusses the tension between the use of Black English and Standard English, underlining how that tension is representative of the deeper conflict that exists between black culture and white expectations. Vivid descriptions—often humorous, sometimes disturbing, always moving—of Gilyard's own childhood experiences in school and society are interlaced with chapters of solid sociolinguistic scholarship.
Encompassing the perspectives of both the "street" and the "academy," Voices of the Self presents an eloquent argument for cultural and linguistic pluralism in American public schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814339114
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	07/01/1991
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	858,100
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Keith Gilyard is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and African American studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Editorial Reviews

Original and creative in structure, Gilyard's book explains analytically how urban blacks use language and learn dialects other than the Black English that characterizes their early speech pattern . . The book delivers brilliantly . . . a classic that should appeal to parents, students of sociolinguistics and education, and those interested in the language challenges that face ghetto youth.

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