Language Attitudes
10
who was primarily European American, and seven of mixed ethnicity. This study
produced what could be called a grounded theory of knowledge of and attitudes about
AAVE. Although the main point of the study was not to discover attitudes toward
AAVE, the authors did find certain salient attitudes, most of which did not establish a
clear pattern. Various attitudes were expressed with several views indicating the
appropriateness of AAVE in certain contexts, and the need for code-switching between
SAE and AAVE. The authors concluded that the majority of informants, including those
who were proficient in AAVE, did not necessarily regard AAVE as a language variety
they wished to affirm. Interestingly, two informants felt that one result of public school
busing in the 1960s and 1970s was that speakers of AAVE and SAE came into direct
contact in classrooms and that SAE became associated with a “White style” of speech
that was achievement oriented. At the same time, speaking AAVE became a social
marker of Black identity. The authors discussed this development, noting that as
linguists and educators began studying and labeling AAVE, the dialect may have taken
on a stigmatized status that was more visible than before.
Discussion
General Patterns in the Literature
The empirical research indicates generally that AAVE is evaluated less positively
than SAE and this trend holds for black and white listeners. However, important
exceptions are also evident. The Tucker and Lambert (1969) data indicated that after the
Network variety sample, the next most highly rated was the educated Negro sample as
judged by the white northern and black listeners. Alternatively, southern white listeners
rated the Educated Southern White speaker second highest. Another exception to the rule
Convention