The achievement gaps between poor and more affluent students are persistent and chronic, as many students living in poverty are also members of more isolated communities where dialects such as African American English and Southern Vernacular English are often spoken. Non-mainstream dialect use is associated with weaker literacy achievement. The…

Explores the characteristics of a useful myth and identifies and describes several in the field of social dialectology: autonomous linguistics, standard/nonstandard polarity, bidialectalism, and community accountability. (KM)

FOUR BIBLIOGRAPHIC REVIEW ARTICLES ON ARABIC DIALECT STUDIES THAT HAD PREVIOUSLY APPEARED WERE CORRECTED AND UPDATED FOR PUBLICATION. THE PURPOSE OF THESE REVISED ARTICLES IS TO PROVIDE THE INTERESTED STUDENT WITH A CAREFULLY EVALUATED LIST OF ALL THE SIGNIFICANT SCHOLARLY WORK PUBLISHED ON ARABIC DIALECTS. THE AUTHORS OF THE ORIGINAL FOUR…

The two purposes of this study were to analyze the linguistic studies of the speech of black Americans which began in 1865 and ended in 1972 and to determine, on the basis of the studies analyzed, whether or not a black dialect exists. First, 73 studies were read and analyzed; second, these studies were categorized according to the investigators'…

The statement by the Executive Committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication affirming the student's right to his own language--his dialect--poses a challenge deserving further research, especially as it concerns the classroom situation. Black English, a dialect with linguistic principles whose roots can be traced to West…

This monograph on Gowda Kannada presents a description of the phonology, morphophonemics, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, interjections, noun derivations, verbs, clitics, and verb stem alternants. The author, in the Introduction and throughout the work, has pointed out some of the important differences between this dialect of Kannada and…

Views from different disciplines and within different disciplines often come into sharp conflict with one another about the speech of lower socio-economic class Negroes. Furthermore, some current views of Black English have challenged basic linguistic and sociolinguistic premises about the nature of language. It is therefore the purpose of this…

A CONFERENCE WAS HELD ON AUGUST 3-5, 1964 TO BRING TOGETHER SCHOLARS IN DIALECTOLOGY AND RELATED FIELDS. THE ENTIRE CONFERENCE WAS TAPE RECORDED AND A TYPESCRIPT MADE. THE CONTENTS OF THE REPORT ENCOMPASS BOTH THE PANEL PAPERS PRESENTED AND DISCUSSIONS ON (1) SOCIAL DIALECTOLOGY, (2) FIELD PROJECTS, (3) SCHOOL AND COLLEGE TEACHING PROGRAMS, (4)…

The major objectives of this investigation were to measure (1) the effects of phonological variations of representative speakers on the social perceptions of college student listeners from socially diverse backgrounds; (2) the influence of the race and class of the listeners upon their attitudes toward dialect differences and toward the speakers;…

The author discusses bidialectalism as a movement in education to render lower class students able to speak both their native dialect and standard English. However, it should not be seen as a way to remedy the injustices of American political and economic life. (Author/LF)

A wide-ranging discussion with William Labov, a sociolinguist interested in the study of nonstandard dialects, especially Black English dialect. (DD)

Generally, the article describes and discusses topics and positions found in the literature on Black English. Specifically, particular attention is paid to certain articles and positions that misrepresent opposing opinions and facts of the area. (Author/RM)

Structional analysis of the spoken French in four regions of North America. (Text is in French.) (PMP)