The subject of ebonics was swept onto the national stage this week when the Oakland school board unanimously approved a districtwide policy to recognize black English as a full-fledged language. District officials say ebonics will not be taught, but teachers will be instructed to respect the language and help children learn how to translate it into standard English.

District administrators admitted that not enough is being done for black students who come to school speaking a nonstandard English learned at home, known as Ebonics, which most researchers now recognize as a separate oral language with its own rules of grammar and structure.

Professor Baird's views were echoed by Professor Ernie Smith, a linguistic professor from the University of California, who said that much of the study of black speech had been made through a "white prism." The result, he said, [is] "black English." which has negative connotations for blacks.

He offered another term for the developing lexicon when he suggested the study of "ebonics," which he said viewed the speech patterns of black American as they relate to Caribbean and African blacks rather than to white Americans.