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The Social Construction of Linguistic Reality: a Case Study Exploring the Relationships Among Poverty, Race, and Remediation in an Urban Community College Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 12-2007 The Social Construction of Linguistic Reality: A Case Study Exploring the Relationships among Poverty, Race, and Remediation in an Urban Community College Rosemary Robinson Jackson Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Jackson, Rosemary Robinson, "The Social Construction of Linguistic Reality: A Case Study Exploring the Relationships among Poverty, Race, and Remediation in an Urban Community College" (2007). Dissertations. 2680. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2680 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. © 2007 Rosemary Robinson Jackson LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF LINGUISTIC REALITY: A CASE STUDY EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG POVERTY, RACE, AND REMEDIATION IN AN URBAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY STUDIES BY ROSEMARY ROBINSON JACKSON CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Rosemary Robinson Jackson, 2007 All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS So many have encouraged and supported me on this journey of research and writing. To all of them I extend my deepest appreciation: To Dr. Steven I. Miller, my advisor and dissertation director for his feedback, patience, and guidance and for his questions that challenged me to remember to look closely at and think deeply about complex issues. To the other members of my committee: Drs. Randall Davenport, retired English professor, City Colleges of Chicago, and Terry E. Williams, a higher education specialist at Loyola University Chicago, for their feedback, confidence, and all that they contributed. To Drs. Orlando Taylor and Theresa Bennerson-Mohamed for granting me permission to use their survey instruments. To Dr. Loretta Brunious for aiding me in clarifying my interest in the connections between social construction of reality and language by talking and asking questions. To Dr. Wayne D. Watson for helping me to see another path. To the administration at the participating institution. To all faculty and students who completed the surveys and especially to those who allowed me to interview them. To the Phinished Group, a dissertation support group from the University of Chicago, for reading, critiquing, and bringing me back to center when my energy, focus, and passion started to wane: Dr. Edgar G. Epps, Dr. Millicent Conley, Fred Hutchinson, and especially to Dr. Ronald E. Kimmons for his tireless editing insights; I am eternally grateful. Appreciation goes to them also, particularly to Dr. Epps, for assisting me in iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. validating the content of the Student Language Attitude Survey, along with Dr. Robert Cruthird, a retired City Colleges of Chicago sociology professor. To Dr. Omar Headen, Dr. Vera Averyhart Fullard, and Paulette Pennington Jones for their assistance. To Dr. Winston Johnson and Clyde El-Amin for the examples they set. To the library staff of Loyola University Chicago and to Valerie Collier for all of their help. To Lauree Garvin for her assistance and patience with the data analysis. To my professors at Loyola for stimulating my mind and my passions about education and critical consciousness, and to Dr. Raymond Barth for guiding me through Loyola’s IRB experience. To Byron Bell for additional assistance with data analysis. To my dear friends and More Than a Book Club sisters for being there, particularly Toni Kent who pushed when I needed to be pushed and Dr. E. Renee Garrick who mentored and inspired me throughout the process. To all of those friends and colleagues who aided me as readers and/or cheerleaders, especially Jerrilynn Chears and Dr. Pamela Parker. To the women of the Sistah Summit retreat for uplifting me at critical junctures. To John E. Hanson who first sparked in me a love of language arts. To my entire family for being patient. To my mother, Rosalie Gray; my sisters Carrie and Erma and my brother Calvin. Special thanks to Erma for helping me to get unstuck. To my daughter Rhonda and my son Baba (ne’ Dana): Rhonda for constant, unwavering support and encouragement and Baba for challenging my beliefs and giving me feedback on the Student Language Attitude Survey. To my first grandchild, Donovan, for his hugs and smiles. And most of all, to my husband Don for sacrificing so much of our time together so that I could fulfill this dream. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Finally, I want to thank the special student whom I refer to as Rab for speaking out in my class one day, prompting me to see Black English and Standard English in new ways, and thus becoming the catalyst for this research project. And thank you, God. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To Odell and Mama Dear Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nothing is real unless we make it real. Nothing can touch us unless we let it touch us. Earnest Holmes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi ABSTRACT xii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the Problem 1 Purpose of the Study 11 Significance of the Study 15 Research Questions 16 Limitations of the Study 17 Overview of the Dissertation 18 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 19 A Sociolinguistic Overview 20 Black English/Ebonics versus Standard English Controversy 51 Effective Pedagogy 70 Summary 91 III. METHODOLOGY 96 The Rationale 96 The Research Questions 100 The Setting 100 The Sample and Procedures 103 IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND RESULTS 109 Findings and Results 109 Faculty Investigations 111 Findings from Faculty Interviews 125 Student Investigations 138 Student Language Attitude Survey 145 Findings of Student Interviews 168 Summary of Major Findings 205 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 209 A Brief Review of the Problem 209 Conclusions 217 Recommendations 224 Suggestions for Further Research 231 APPENDIX A. CONSENT FORMS 233 B. TAYLOR’S LANGUAGE ATTITUDE SCALE 245 C. STUDENT LANGUAGE ATTITUDE SURVEY 251 D. DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FORMS 256 E. PEARSON CORRELATION MATRIX 259 F. ANOVA/T-TEST BY AGE—ALL QUESTIONS-SLAS 266 G. T-TESTS/ANOVA BY GENDER-SLAS 277 H. T-TESTS/ANOVA BY FIRST IN FAMILY TO ATTEND COLLEGE-SLAS 285 I. PERCENTAGE OF CPS GRADUATES WHO SCORED BELOW COLLEGE-READY LEVEL 293 J. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 295 REFERENCES 304 VITA 319 ix Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Black English Characteristics Matched with West African Grammar and Structure 56 2. Black English Characteristics Matched with West African Sound Rules 56 3. Black English Characteristics Matched with Standard English Equivalents 57 4. Demographic Frequencies Faculty 112 5. Frequency Tables - Faculty Language Attitude Scale 116 6. Student Demographic Profile 141 7. Comparison of Q8, Q8A, Q9, and Q9A 147 8. Student Language Attitude Survey with Data Analysis Summary 148 9. Frequencies - Student Language Attitude Survey 155 10. Cross Tabulations Showing Significant Results 162 x Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Linguistic Diversity Within the African American Speech Community 36 2. Social Systems (Institutions) Impacting Black Children as They Acquire Language 40 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The primary problem which this research addresses is that the majority of African American students entering urban community colleges are not equipped with the requisite language skills to perform as expected in their writing classes. The reasons for these high levels of unpreparedness are complex and multifaceted. Grounded in sociolinguistic theory, this study seeks to explore how these students construct linguistic reality and in so doing manage conflicting language expectations. Thus, the major research question is: How do lower SES African American students at an urban community college manage the competing linguistic expectations of their home environment and the college environment? Because of the widespread association of SE with “acting white” in the BE speech community and because lack of communicative competence in SE has been associated with poor academic achievement among many African American students, the “acting white” phenomenon is a major focal
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