Language and Identity: Shifting Away from a Deficit Perspective on African American English

In our second of two episodes in honor of Black History Month, today we’re addressing African American English, or AAE. AAE is a language variation. Maybe you've heard it called a dialect. It sounds different from Mainstream American English. It has its own rules and its own grammar, and it comes from a long language tradition. But when AAE is not recognized, it can be misdiagnosed as a language disorder. Covering everything from misdiagnosis in the classroom to the connection between language and identity, our panel of experts discusses the language variation known as African American English.