A description and analysis of the various functions of black language as an integral part of the collective experience and identity of American blacks. (EH)

Part of the Oregon Elementary English Project, this unit focuses on variation in language. Consisting of fourteen individual lessons, the unit begins with a series of lessons whose purpose is to develop students' ability to recognize ways in which objects belonging to the same set may differ. These lessons serve as preparation for observing the…

As part of a larger sociolinguistic study investigating the attitudes of Puerto Ricans on the island toward their own vernacular speech, the present research focused on the subjective reactions of 104 public high school teachers and students to spoken speech styles. The subjects' task was to: listen to a prerecorded tape, rate the voices on the…

This ninth-grade unit on language differences is intended to increase "the student's awareness or sensitivity to the ways in which language varies with the differing backgrounds and interests of those who use language," to develop his "abilities to adapt his language behavior to more effectively meet the demands of a variety of…

Disciplines interested in communication have failed to describe adequately the comprehension or production of taboo or dirty words with the result that little is known about the phenomenon. A review of research leads to the assumption that taboo word comprehension and production are the result of some or all of the following elements of the…