Word: dialectical
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Road parents felt that teachers were expressing their disapproval of black English too harshly, causing student embarrassment and hurting the children's chances to learn. The parents filed a federal suit in Michigan's Eastern District Court, demanding that school authorities "recognize" black English as a formal dialect with historic roots and grammatical rules...
Like most Green Road parents, the plaintiffs want their children to use standard English, but they insisted that the school respond more sympathetically to the dialect in teaching. "Language is like clothing," said University of Michigan Professor Daniel Fader, testifying on behalf of the children. "When you take it away from the child, you leave him naked." As Attorney Gabe Kaimowitz insisted, "We're looking for use of black English as a bridge to get kids to use standard English...
...District Judge Charles W. Joiner concluded that the school had not been as sympathetic as it should have been. In a 43-page opinion that is expected to serve as a precedent for other legal challenges, Joiner provided the first judicial acknowledgment that black English is a distinct dialect, not just slovenly talk, and ordered the Ann Arbor school district to prepare a plan for teaching black English speakers. Last week the district announced a $42,000 special program. All teachers at the King school will now be required to take "sensitivity courses" in how to steer small pupils tactfully...
...early 20th century, Finley Peter Dunne's "Mr. Dooley" carved up public figures in a thick Irish dialect and coined a few deathless epigrams along...
...Russian ethnographers and explorers of the 19th century and laces his narrative with chapter headings like "Yellow Colonialism," "They Want to Secede" and "The Aggressor Rebuffed." He argues that China "can hardly be said to have any common cultural makeup" and virtually denies the existence of an official national dialect, Mandarin. He also asserts that the Chinese are not patriotic but only respond to individual leadership...