Talking Proper is a history of the rise and fall of the English accent as a badge of cultural, social, and class identity. Lynda Mugglestone traces the origins of the phenomenon in late eighteenth-century London, follows its history through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and charts its downfall during the era of New Labor. This is a witty, readable account of a fascinating subject, liberally spiced with quotations from English speech and writing over the past 250 years.

An authoritative, impassioned celebration of Black English, how it works, and why it matters

This book is the definitive and final presentation of John Ogbu’s cultural ecological model and the many debates that his work has sparked during the past decade. Organized as a dialogue between John Ogbu and the scholarly community, Minority Status, Oppositional Culture, and Schooling is essential reading for anyone interested in the study of the academic achievement gap

Focuses on the role of community forces in academic disengagement among Black American Students at every social class level; the study extends Ogbu's ongoing research on minority education.

In this book, I will show African Americans how and why they speak the way they do. Many cultural factors play a significant role in how African Americans develop their linguistic patterns. I am more concerned with the way African Americans speak today. Although the histories of African American linguistic patterns are essential, I am more focused on the here and now. Therefore, I will direct my attention toward the nest (family system) because here is where the development of linguistic patterns starts. I also want my brothers and sisters to understand that they live in a linguistically prejudiced society that only accepts Standard American English as the official tongue that represents the United States of America. The bottom line is, for African Americans to become successful in today’s society, they must become a code-switching culture, for they are not and will never be considered a bilingual group since their native linguistic tongue is linguistically defunct. And so, African Americans, you need to know that throughout your life, you will experience linguistic prejudice if you continue to speak only AAVE.

In nineteen essays illustrating its many aspects, this book offers an argument for what it takes to construct a complete rhetorical education. The editors take an approach that is pragmatic and pluralistic, based as it is on the assumptions that a rhetorical education is not limited to teaching freshman composition (or any specific writing course) and that the contexts in which such an education occurs are not limited to classrooms. This thought-provoking volume stresses that while a rhetorical education results in the growth of writing skills, its larger goal is to foster critical thinking.

From its historical development to its current context, this is the first full-length overview of middle-class African American English.