The Ebonics Debate
On December 18th, 1996, the Oakland Unified School District adopted Ebonics, a terms which is a combination of the words ebony and phonics used to describe the African-American vernacular, as a language. Since then it seems wether on talk shows, newspaper editorials or television news, everyone wants to offer their opinion. This paper will examine two very different points of view, and decide which arguments proves to be stronger. In Charles J. Fillmore=s article AA Linguist Looks at the Ebonics Debate@ the enthymeme states this resolution is necessary in A(b)uilding on the language the children have to help them acquire the language they need to learn in school@(2). He states that most people are misinformed about the intentions of the school district as well as the problem at hand. In Chuck Sambar=s article AEbonics@ a contrasting view is offered. The enthymeme of the article is as follows: AThe decision of the Oakland School District to put itself on the map of educational nonsense has been fast, broad based, and unrelenting@(1). He argues that everyone=s time and money could be much better spent on more important issues in today=s school system. The following three paragraph=s will examine the et
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1666
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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