Toward a Pedagogy of Linguistic Diversity: Understanding African American Linguistic Practices and Programmatic Learning Goals

The relationship between cultural diversity, linguistic diversity, and composition has been a topic that has received much attention in rhetoric and composition's disciplinary conversations, even if current pedagogical practices used to address these matters lag behind in progress. In this essay, the author focuses on how to address linguistic diversity and race in writing assessment in the classroom. This essay offers an example of one course that focuses exclusively on Ebonics as a specific African American linguistic practice and on rhetoric and composition scholarship as the primary topics of investigation. The author examines how one first-year writing class accomplishes the designated learning goals of a large midwestern institution, while exploring Ebonics and rhetoric and composition's disciplinary scholarship. (Contains 6 notes.)