Children who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and speak in nonstandard dialects should not be made to feel inferior but should be listened to. (JH)

The teacher of black students needs to develop a sensitivity to their rich communicative language styles in order to use the varied styles in the classroom situation. (JH)

Presents results of a study of the phonological, morphological, and syntactical oral language patterns of disadvantaged children of New Orleans. Many of the findings are relevant to beginning reading instruction. (TO)

The article discusses how semantic variations in the speech of lower socioeconomic children reflects the deprivations in their lives. (MF)

Report of research findings on productive language differences in beginning fifth grade Black children living in Philadelphia, as evidenced by their use of nonstandard syntactic forms in both speech and writing. (RB)

An examination of ERIC documents pertinent to this topic; a preprint from a forthcoming publication of the National Conference on Research in English. (Editor/RD)

This study investigated the relationship between the syntactical language development of first grade children and their socio-ethnic status. From a random selection of 160 first grade children, 19 Caucasians with highly developed language abilities were selected from a high socioeconomic stratum to be compared with 19 Negroes with low language…