ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
A bill drafted by a state delegate would prohibit Virginia schools from teaching nonstandard English such as Ebonics, a black dialect recognized as a second language at schools in Oakland, Calif.
Gov. George Allen would not say whether he would sign the bill if it passes, but he said there is no place for Ebonics in Virginia's public school curriculum.
``Ebonics don't fit into any of our standards of learning presently or in the future,'' he said Thursday during a tour of the new Library of Virginia in Richmond.
The Oakland School Board triggered a nationwide debate last month when it voted to recognize black English, or Ebonics, as a legitimate language. It also voted to create a program to train teachers to understand it so they can teach students standard English.
Board members said recognizing black English is a way to reach out to students who feel their spoken language is being ignored.
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley said the Clinton administration has determined that federal bilingual education funds cannot be used to support black English in schools.
Lynchburg Del. Preston Bryant said his bill would prohibit any ``nonstandard or poorly spoken English from being taught in public schools as the equivalent of standard English.''
``In Virginia we have a heritage of diversity,'' Bryant said. ``Appalachian English is a dialect, so is the English spoken by our Asian and Hispanic populations. But public schools should be teaching children standard English.''
Former Lynchburg City Councilman Gilliam Cobbs, who ran against Bryant in 1995 and may run against him this year, said he thought the Republican's actions were premature.
``I don't think there's been time to study the issue,'' Cobbs said. ``You know it's possible to overlegislate.''
Last year the General Assembly passed a bill making English the state's official language. Bryant said his bill would make it clear that standard English, not any dialect, was the official language.
``Officially sanctioning the butchering of the English language should not be a design of our public schools,'' he said.
According to the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association, black English simplifies consonants at the end of words. The word ``hand,'' for example, is pronounced ``han'' and ``walking'' is ``walkin.'' The final ``th'' at the end of a word often is pronounced as an ``f'' so that ``with'' becomes ``wif.''
Those who speak black English also do not conjugate the verb to be, as in ``She be here.''
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB