Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you

Warmer
1
Complete the sentence by choosing the correct second half of the sentence.
intent 
surrender 
undermine 
translator 
surveillance 
recruit
 
linguist 
deals
slang
vernacular 
wiretaps 
dialect
Key words 
2
Ebonics is ...
a. … the street name of an illegal drug.
b. … an informal language used by some African Americans.
c. … a style of underground music similar to jazz.
Scan the article to find answers to the questions.
Scanning for information
3
1. What does DEA stand for?
2. How many speakers of Ebonics are the DEA looking for and where will they work?
3. What will the main work of the speakers of Ebonics be?
4. Which of the following languages do the DEA class as ‘common’ and which do they class as ‘exotic’? Arabic, 
Norwegian, Farsi, Chimora.

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NEWS LESSONS / US drug agency recruits speakers of ‘street slang’ / Intermediate
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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
 US drug agency recruits speakers of ‘street slang’
Level 2
Intermediate
US drug agency recruits speakers of 
‘street slang’
Chris McGreal in Washington
24 August, 2010
The demand for large numbers of Spanish 
translators in America’s war on drugs will come 
as no surprise. But now, an attempt to recruit 
people who speak what some consider to be 
a homegrown United States language has put 
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) 
in the unique position of seeking translators to 
understand what African Americans are saying to 
each other.
The DEA is hiring nine speakers of Ebonics. 
Ebonics is a term that appeared in the
mid-1970s to describe US black vernacular 
English. The speakers of Ebonics will translate 
wiretaps and video surveillance tapes into 
standard American English. The translations will 
allow government agents to track criminal deals 
and provide evidence that will stand up in court.
Ebonics is described by some linguists as a 
kind of English that uses the grammar of African 
languages. But as it also includes many words 
that have been invented on the streets, others 
say it is just slang.
Nonetheless, the DEA is confused enough by 
the language to ask companies which provide 
translation services to find nine Ebonics 
translators. These translators will cover an area 
from Washington DC to New Orleans and Miami 
and even the Caribbean.
Not everyone agrees with this decision. 
American officials have in the past denied that 
Ebonics even exists.
“A lot of times people think you’re just dealing 
with a few slang words and that you can work 
your way around it,” John Rickford, a Stanford 
University linguistics professor, told the 
Associated Press. “But that’s not true –
it’s a big vocabulary. There are some
significant differences.”
Although many scholars do not accept that 
Ebonics is a language, it got nationwide attention 
in 1996 when a school board in Oakland, 
California decided to recognize it as a primary 
language and to offer classes taught in Ebonics.
The decision was criticized because people 
thought it would undermine African American 
children’s command of English. Jesse Jackson, 
the African American civil rights leader, 
described it as “an unacceptable surrender”. 
He later changed his position, saying he had 
misunderstood that the school’s intent was to 
use Ebonics to improve the students’ English.
“It seems ironic that schools that are serving and 
educating black children have not recognized 
this language,” said H Samy Alim, a Stanford 
linguistics professor. “Yet the police are 
recognizing that this is a language that they don’t 
understand. It tells us a lot about where we are 
socially in terms of recognizing African
American speech.”
The DEA’s need for Ebonics translators was 
revealed in a document first published by The 
Smoking Gun (a website belonging to Turner 
Entertainment Digital Network that uploads 
material obtained from government and law 
enforcement sources, via freedom of
information requests).
The DEA says it mostly needs speakers of 
Latin American Spanish but it is also seeking 
people fluent in 114 languages listed either as 
“common” or “exotic”. The common languages 
include Arabic, Farsi and Punjabi. On the 
exotic list are Baloch from Iran, Berber dialects, 
Chimora from Guam, Ibo from Nigeria
and Norwegian.
The Ebonics translators will work in the Atlanta 
Field Division where there will be a similar 
number of Vietnamese, Korean and Laotian 
speakers – and 144 Spanish translators.
© Guardian News & Media 2010
First published in The Guardian, 24/08/10
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NEWS LESSONS / US drug agency recruits speakers of ‘street slang’ / Intermediate
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