Resources for Educators

This page provides a comprehensive list of online and multimedia resources for educators interested in learning more about language variation.  We also have content-area specific pages:

• Click here for resources especially for secondary English educators
• Click here for resources especially for STEM educators
• Scroll down for general resources for educators at all grade levels and across content areas!

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About Language Variation

• The Linguistic Society of America:  Frequently Asked Questions about Linguistics
• The National Science Foundation: Dialects – What They Are, Why They Matter
• Center For Applied Linguistics:  Dialects
• Language Log posts on issues related to language variation:
  • Dialects
  • Language variability
  • Discrimination
  • Language and the Law
  • Language and Politics
  • Language and Social Life
  • Language Attitudes
  • Language Teaching and Learning
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Variation
• Actor Stephen Fry talking about variation and change in the English language
• “Language Rules ‘Stay in the Family’”: An ABC Science article describing the use of evolutionary biology to study the evolution of language structure
• Downloadable and Streaming Podcasts from The Five-Minute Linguist on various topics:
  • What’s Special about Language?
  • How Many Languages Are There?
  • Do All Languages Come from the Same Source?
  • Why Should Americans Learn Languages?
  • Where Did English Come From?
  • And many more….
• Popular Linguistics Online magazine
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel
• “‘It’s a Language Variation, and It Has Its Own Structure”:  Our podcast features the voices of 14 pre- and in-service teachers talking about what they have learned about language variation in the classroom and how it has positively impacted their teaching and helped them better communicate with their students.

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About American English and Other Languages in the U.S.

• The Open University‘s series of 10 short and funny videos, called “The History of English in 10 Minutes” — topics on American English, Internet English, The English of Science, Shakespeare.  For a list of all 10 videos, click here.
• Listen to speakers from throughout the U.S. and Canada on the Speech Accent Archive
• PBS Documentary and interactive website, Do You Speak American?
• Opening Scene from the documentary, American Tongues
• CBS This Morning piece, “Are Americans Losing their Accents?” In this video, Mo Rocca interviews linguist Dr. Walt Wolfram about language variation in American English and calls North Carolina “dialect heaven”
• “The Diversity of English in America,”  a blog post by Dr. Simanique Moody on the structure of African American English
• Modern Language Association’s Map of Languages in the U.S. 
• Dictionary of American Regional English
• National Map of Dialect Regions of the U.S.  gives detailed discussion of language variation in U.S. English
• Professor’s Research Allows Audience to Hear Shakespeare’s Words in His Own Accent
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project YouTube Channel
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel

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Language and Culture in the South and Appalachia

• “Do All Southerners Have the Same Dialect?” Listen to this podcast.
• “Southern Accent in Danger?” An article on the changing Raleigh, NC, dialect.
• “Where Did Cajun Come From?” Listen to this podcast.
• Center for the Study of the American South
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project
• The Appalachian Regional Commission
• Affrilachian Poets
• Spanish Voices: Spanish and English in the Southeastern United States, a documentary from the North Carolina Language and Life Project
• Watch a Speaker of the Cherokee Language from the “Voices of North Carolina” documentary from the North Carolina Language and Life Project
• Southern Education Foundation provides information about education in the U.S. South
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project YouTube Channel
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel
• Language Variation in the Classroom:  A Guide for Teachers, compiled by Hannah Askin Franz, College of William & Mary
• Teaching Tolerance: “Good Morning Boys and Girls” article on language and gender bias in school classrooms
• Language Diversity, School Learning, and Achievement Gaps: A Workshop Summary  A summary and synthesis of reports from scholars who attended the National Research Council workshop on the issues that surround the study of language, academic learning, and achievement gaps in the U.S.
• Linguistics Research Digest: Blogging on Language Issues
• High School Teachers’ Manual/Guide on Language Variation for the PBS Documentary, Do You Speak American?
• College Teachers’ Manual/Guide on African American English for the PBS Documentary, Do You Speak American?

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Language and Culture in African American Communities

• Center for Applied Linguistics: African American English
• Linguist List: African American Vernacular English: An article in which linguists discuss this variety, providing information and expressing reactions to the Oakland Ebonics controversy
• “If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” Essay by James Baldwin (1979) in The New York Times
• “The Diversity of English in America,” a blog post by Dr. Simanique Moody on the structure of African American English
• Affrilachian Poets
• Phonological (Sound-Related) Features of African American English
• College Teachers’ Manual/Guide on African American English for the PBS Documentary, Do You Speak American?
• The Black American Sign Language (ASL) Project from Gallaudet University describes “the linguistic features of a variety of American Sign Language (ASL) used by African American signers and usually known as Black ASL.”  See also the Black American Sign Language (ASL) Project’s Facebook page
• Black ASL:  A Post on Word. The Online Journal of African American English
• Word. The Online Journal of African American English
• “Word on the Street, Blogging about African American Linguistics”
• Dr. John R. Rickford’s Website, “Writings on the ‘Ebonics’ Issue”
• Dr. Peter Patrick’s “Bibliography of Works on African American English”
• University of Massachusetts-Amherst Center for the Study of African American Language
• The North Carolina Language and Life Project YouTube Channel
• Our Valuable Voices YouTube Channel

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On Culture, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Education

• “Race: The Power of an Illusion” Documentary:  Episode 1
• “Race: The Power of an Illusion” Online Companion
• “Race – Are We So Different?”  A Project of the American Anthropological Association
• National Public Radio’s (NPR) blog, Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity
• The National Association for Multicultural Education
• Teaching Tolerance, “a place to find thought-provoking news, conversation and support for those who care about diversity, equal opportunity and respect for differences in schools” — the site includes classroom activities
• Teaching Tolerance:  Everyone Has an Accent
• Teaching Tolerance:  Classroom activity on “Linguicism”
• Teaching Tolerance:  ”Sound Effects” article on Dialect Prejudice and Accent Discrimination
• Teaching Tolerance:  Exploring the Power of the N-word:  A teacher writes a blog post on issues surrounding “the ‘N’ word” in her middle school English classroom in Louisiana
• Teaching Tolerance:  Appreciate the Diversity in Rural Places
• Teachers Against Prejudice, an organization for sharing materials about teaching for social justice
• Test Yourself for Hidden Bias:  Psychologists developed Hidden Bias Tests, also called Implicit Association Tests, to measure unconscious bias
• Culture in the Classroom: A short article and video about incorporating culture into curriculum at a high school on South Dakota’s Lakota Rosebud Reservation, with further resources for addressing cultural myth
• The Teaching Diverse Students Initiative: A short article discusses culturally relevant pedagogy with a short video featuring Dr. Sonia Nieto
• The Bank Street College Library provides a searchable catalog of children’s multicultural literature
• Culturally Relevant Literacy children’s book reading list, downloadable as a PDF
• The MultiCultural Reviewjournal features materials used in multicultural instruction
• The National Center for Fair and Open Testing providesFairTest Fact Sheets, including K-12 Testing Fact Sheets
• The American Sociological Association’s resources for teaching high school sociology

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Our Wikis

• The Wiki Site for the Compass Breaking Down Barriers Conference
• The Wiki Site for our VCU Workshops – password protected (available to past and current participants)
• The Wiki Site for our MGP Workshops – password protected (available to past and current participants)
• The Wiki Site for our SURN Workshops – password protected (available to current participants)

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This page provides a comprehensive list of online and multimedia resources for educators interested in learning more about language variation.  We also have content-area specific pages:

• Click here for resources especially for secondary English educators
• Click here for resources especially for STEM educators
• Scroll up for general resources for educators at all grade levels and across content areas!

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Want to suggest any additional resources for educators?

Interested in participating in our professional development for educators?

Please contact us!