Are You With Me?

In the article, Are you with Me by Foster he shows how African American women that are teachers try to communicate with their children on an intimate level.  He breaks the article up in two different scenarios, the first half is him sitting in a classroom with an African American woman teacher and the second half is him interviewing four African American teachers.

The classroom scenario shows the teacher using performance speech to teach and communicate with the class.  Performance speech is shifting from Standard English to a more black style of discourse using elongated vowels, utilizing pitch and stress, repetition, and uses gestures.  She compares this with an African American church she attends, in which she says she always is more involved and people enjoy the service more when the Pastor uses performance speech.

The interview scenario shows the four women using codeswitching deliberately to show speakers’ identities and emphasis.  While the teachers express times when they speak with their students they use a more black style when expressing students’ responses and a more Standard English when developing the story. 

I chose a scene from an African American church service.  From this scene, you can see the performance speech taking place.  The pastor uses repetition by repeating phrases to get his point across.  He uses stress and change in pitch to engage the audience.  He uses a more black style of speaking like discussed in Foster to relate to his audience and to get his point across. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rffwcLVm93w

Anna Frick