Description
Book SynopsisHow this valorization of "proper" English has affected the language, literacy, educational achievements, and self-image of five African American women—the author's grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, and herself.
Trade Review"This book is a major achievement by one of the brightest young scholars in the field." Geneva Smitherman, author of Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture, and Education in African America
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part One. The Narratives: Peculiar to Your Mind
- Our Languages, Our Selves
- Maya: It Doesn't Bother Me
- Grace: I Always Wondered If My Life Would Have Been Different If
- Reia: Searching for My Place
- Deidra: A Mother's Love Is the Greatest Love of All
- Sonja: I Had to Do What I Wanted to Do
- Part Two. The Analyses: Surreality
- Maya: I'm Comfortable Like I Am:
- Grace: If I Could've Gotten into a Trade School
- Reia: I Am Proud of Myself
- Deidra: I Was Hiding. I Didn't Know. I Was Scared
- Sonja: I Had a Positive Experience
- The Rest of the Story
- Appendix 1. Participants' Possible Selves Data
- Appendix 2. Participants' Speech Samples Data
- Appendix 3. Participants' Language and Literacy Ideologies Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
