Background/Context: Although progress has been made since members of the Conference on College Composition and Communication passed the Students' Right to Their Own Language resolution (1974), there still remains a demand to examine youth perceptions of language. Such examinations can help teachers and researchers improve curricular choices, honor…

Discusses the use of second language teaching methods in teaching English to urban Negro children. This article appears in "The Florida FL Reporter special anthology issue, "Linguistic-Cultural Differences and American Education, and has been reprinted from R. Shuy, ed. "Social Dialects and Language Learning (1965). (FWB)

This article examines the language needs of culturally different clients from a Black perspective, discusses the problems of languages-in-contact, and presents specific ways for teachers to improve the language competencies of Black students. (Author/HMV)

This essay notes that the book under review is primarily a popular translation of research in the area of vernacular black English (VBE) that presents a relatively non-technical discussion of the linguistic characteristics of VBE and their educational implications. (Author/AM)

This article focuses on the particular challenges, choices, and celebrations relevant to teaching in an urban setting. The speech of African American students is described as rich and reflective of the African American oral tradition. The article also discusses the meaning, rules and the evolution of African American English.

RESEARCH ON ENGLISH PHONOLOGY IN NEW YORK CITY IS DESCRIBED. CURRENT LINGUISTIC THEORY IS CONSIDERED UNABLE TO ACCOUNT FOR MASSIVE "FREE VARIATION" IN THE PHONOLOGY OF THE SPEECH OF THAT AREA. ISOLATED WERE PHONOLOGICAL VARIABLES WHICH ARE ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIAL, STYLISTIC, ETHNIC, AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS IN NEW YORK CITY. QUANTITATIVE…

This paper offers a brief but comprehensive overview of various issues pertaining to the use and origins of Black English. The purpose of the paper is to help educators understand Black English and celebrate this dialect in class while facilitating the acquisition of Standard English. It holds that Ebonics is a dialect of English with its own set…

Originally appeared in Workpapers: Teaching English as a Second Language," Volume 5 (June 1971), Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles, California. (VM)

Based in part on a presentation at the Conference on Symbolic Processes in Akron, Ohio, October 1970. (VM)

A STUDY WAS UNDERTAKEN TO EXAMINE THE NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL CLASS AND COGNITIVE ABILITIES OF NEGRO KINDERGARTEN BOYS. FIFTY MIDDLE CLASS AND 50 LOWER CLASS NEGRO KINDERGARTEN BOYS WERE INDIVIDUALLY ADMINISTERED EXTENSIVE TESTS DESIGNED TO ASSESS SPECIFIC INFORMATION PROCESSING ABILITIES. THE EIGHT INSTRUMENTS USED INCLUDED…

This book examines dialect variations in the United States. Chapter topics include an introduction to dialect study, colonial English, eastern settlement, eastern words, eastern pronunciation, eastern grammar, the westward movement, sectional atlas studies (the Great Lakes, the Upper Middle West, Texas, Colorado and other Rocky Mountain areas,…

This study describes the segmental phonemes of five 4-year-old speakers of Black English, and analyzes both their language development and ethnic characteristics. The study group of Negro children, born and living in Washington, D.C., came from homes that met two of three specified criteria based on the mother's education and family income. The…

The recent work by sociolinguists is more accurate for consideration of urban dialects than is the analysis provided in the "Linguistic Atlas" materials. The sociolinguists' work shows that the use of nonstandard phonological and grammatical features varies according to one's socioeconomic status, ethnic background, speech context, age,…

Detailed study of Detroit-area adolescents provides explanations for the spread of sound change outward from urban areas and upward through the socioeconomic hierarchy. Social network structure, orientation to the urban area, and phonology are contrasted for the two adolescent social categories, "Jocks" (middle class) and…