Learn more about AAL!

This page, curated by the ORAAL team, includes links to videos, podcasts, and other websites that discuss different aspects of AAL that we think are excellent resources. We first present several videos, including General Information, Perception of AAL, clips from the documentary Talking Black in America, Education, Variation in AAL, Code Switching, and we highlight lectures by linguists on AAL!

If you have any suggestions or recommendations for additions, please contact us at OnlineResourcesAAL@gmail.com!

Videos

General Information about AAL

We start by highlighting general introductions to the study of AAL

“What people get wrong about AAE” from the PBS’s Otherwords web series. This gives a general introduction to some features of AAL.

In the following two videos, speakers talk about their language as expressions of cultural identity.

Professor Mary Zeigler of Georgia University talks about the influence that African Americans have had on the development of American English. Her students discuss the importance of their own language as an expression of their cultural identity.

Several African Americans discuss their views on the perception of their language skills and African American English.

Talking Black in America

The Language and Life Project produced documentary, Talking Black in America, came out in 2017. Here we provide links to several clips from the documentary, as well as the trailer for the forthcoming Signing Black in America, about Black American Sign Language use in African American communities.

African American Language - Skills

African American Language - Education

African American Language - Code Switching

What is Black American Sign Language?

The History of Black Deaf Schools

Check the LLP’s YouTube Channel for even more videos!

Education and Controversies

This video, What American got wrong about Ebonics? presents a great summary of the Oakland Ebonics Controversy, and why American got it wrong. There is an accompanying article via the Huffington Post, available here.

The following clip is from the documentary, Do You Speak American? about the Ann Arbor School Board. Also check out “AAE (or Ebonics) in the Classroom.”

In addition to the videos above, we really like two videos produced by KARE 11 in Minneapolis about African American Vernacular English in the classroom: Lessons from Lucy Laney: African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Lucy Laney Elementary: African American Vernacular English. Both videos were part of KARE 11’s year long documentary about Lucy Laney Elementary School.

Check out this video, Oakland Unified School District, compiled by Anthony Garcia, featuring footage from the 90s, including interviews with Toni Cook of the Oakland School Board, as well as sociolinguist Fay Vaughn Cooke.

Variation in AAL

In this section, we present a couple videos that highlight different aspects of variation in AAL. The first video, produced by the Language and Life Project, highlights variation in North Carolina, and the second is a video produced by MTV, asking the question, Why do people say ‘ax’ instead of ‘ask’?

AAE Voices of North Carolina

Why do people say ‘ax’ instead of ‘ask’?

Code Switching/Style Shifting

For more about Code Switching/Style Shifting, see our AAL Variation page!

Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English

Jamila Lyiscott, an educator and spoken word artist, discusses the languages she uses with her friends, parents and in the classroom.

Black American Sign Language

For more information on Black ASL, please visit Dr. Joseph Hill’s Resource page: https://sites.google.com/view/josephchill/black-deaf-resources

Black ASL:

Dr. Joseph Hill gives a general introduction to Black American Sign Language.

Lectures

Many lectures are available on YouTube. We highlight two, Dr. Lisa Green, presenting “African American English Through The Years” and Dr. April Baker-Bell’s “We Been Knowin’: Toward an Antiracist Language & Literacy Education.”

Dr. Lisa Green, professor of linguistics at University of
Massachusetts - Amherst and director of the Center for the Study of African American Language, presents
a lecture discussing the acquisition of African American English in children.

Dr. April Baker-Bell is an Assistant Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University. An emerging national and international leader in conversations on Black Language, her research interrogates the intersections of sociolinguistics, anti-black racism, and anti-racist pedagogies.

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Podcasts and Radio

Podcasts and radio programs can be a great introduction to different kinds of academic topics, and can be great tools to use in the classroom setting. Below, we list several linguistically relevant podcasts, with some episode recommendations that focus on topics related to AAL.

The Black Language Podcast - A podcast hosted by Anansa Benbow throughout 2020, “dedicated to talking about Black people and our languages, and the beauty, rawness, and complicatedness of our various realities.

Code Switch - Code Switch, a NPR podcast hosted by a team of journalists, including Gene Demby, Shereen Marisol Meraji, and Karen Grigsby Bates, discuss the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture. Several of their episodes touch on language in the African American community directly or indirectly, including clips such as “Why Chaucer Said ‘Ax’ instead of ‘Ask’ and why some still do”, “Challenging the whiteness of public radio”, and articles like “The Journey from ‘Colored’ to ‘Minorities’ to ‘People Of Color’”.

Lingthusiasm - Popular linguistics podcast hosted by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. A wide range of topics are covered from episode to episode, but include things like etymologies, sign languages, kinship terms, and more. They also provide useful information about incorporating their podcasts in the classroom context (Using Lingthusiasm in the classroom). Episode 13, “What does it mean to sound Black? Intonation and Identity” features Dr. Nicole Holliday.

Spectacular Vernacular - Between August 2021 and March 2022, University of Pennsylvania linguist Nicole Holliday and Wall Street Journal language columnist Ben Zimmer discuss the ways language is changing, talk to scholars and writers, and set and solve word puzzles. A wide range of topics are covered.

Vocal Fries - Hosts Dr. Megan Figueroa and Dr. Carrie Gillon have spoken to several African American English scholar over the past several years. A selection of episodes of listed below:

A Way with Words - A public radio program about language examined through history, culture and family.

Talk the Talk - The Talk the Talk podcast covers a wide range of topics, including a recent episode featuring sociolinguist Dr. Jessi Grieser talking about AAL in Washington DC!

Other Websites and Materials

Black Language Syllabus- The Black Language Syllabus is an online magazine and website co-edited, designed, and maintained by Dr. April Baker-Bell and Dr. Carmen Kynard. The website contains articles on Black Language Education, Black Language in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, and Black Language in Hip Hop.

Talking Black in America Educational Resources - Talking Black in America producers have put together several discussion guides for educators and the public to discuss key points of the documentary. The new documentary Signing Black in America has a similar discussion guide.

Word. The Online Journal on African American English - Word is a blog created in 2009 by Niki Hossack, a linguistics student at New York University, and includes posts primarily by Dr. Renée Blake and several graduate students between 2009 and 2020. (Note that we are linking to an archive of the website since the original website no longer exists.)

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