ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the literacy education of children who speak varieties of English that are traditionally marginalized in public schools and in societies in general. It discusses how a multiliteracies conceptual framework paves the way for more just and equitable perceptions of language varieties. The chapter also focuses primarily on African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and aboriginal English. AAVE is sometimes called Ebonics. An intense national debate occurred in the United States in the 1990s when the School Board of Oakland, California sanctioned the use of Ebonics as a tool to teach African American children in Oakland to learn to speak standard varieties of English. AAVE is considered to be a dialect by some scholars and a separate language by others. Finally, the chapter describes the role that politics, power, and ideology play in discussions of language-related issues.
