Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine which instructional strategies elementary school principals and fourth-grade teachers perceive substantially support the development of Standard English language skills and reading proficiency in African American students. Methodology: The study used a descriptive case study. The findings were…

In the past, social lectologists have not considered their work as contrastive linguistics. One reason is that sociolects of a language differ quantitatively; differences lie in the frequency patterns with which certain forms occur in each lect. Contrastive linguistics deals with standard or idealized languages, while sociolects are often…

There are two positions on the relationship of the speech of Blacks and whites, and they are quite opposed to one another. One position observes virtually no differences in the speech of Southern whites and Blacks and therefore assumes that the historical development can be traced to a British dialect. The other sees many significant differences…

The concept of the chorophone forms the basis for this study of vowel differences between Southern Negro English and Southern white English. The author isolates chorophones for the speech community under study according to the occurrence of a particular segmental phoneme or corresponding phoneme sequences in a set of words, all of which contain…

A variety of views on the legitimacy of Black English are discussed in terms of how it affects its users, especially in educational settings. (EH)

Although different philosophical and methodological approaches underlying materials for teaching Standard English (SE) to Black English (BE) speakers have now received some attention, one aspect of methodology for which there is no specific discussion is the order in which SE features should be presented. The author suggests and discusses five…

Sociolinguistic variation in the copula system of Black English was studied in the light of the linguistic history of the dialect and universal constraints on possible grammars. An attempt was made to identify sociological factors which account for the fact that the grammar of American Black English does not exhibit evidence for a creole stage in…

A discussion of this phenomenon in various dialects of Spanish. (RM)

The current dissertation investigated clear speech production of Korean stops to examine the proposal that the phonetic targets of phonological categories are more closely approximated in hyperarticulated speech. The investigation also considered a sound change currently underway in Korean stops: younger speakers of the Seoul dialect produce the…

Purpose: This study explored the type and adequacy of cohesive devices that are produced by school-age children who use African American English (AAE). Method: The language samples of 33 African American children, ages 7, 9, and 11 years, were transcribed, analyzed, and coded for AAE use and cohesive adequacy (e.g., personal reference,…

Explains misconceptions and re-assesses old attitudes about teaching dialects in an effort to affirm the student's right to his own language. (RB)

It is evident that, when dialect similarity exists between speakers and listeners, listeners tend to be more accepting of the speakers than when there is a difference in dialect. In order to ascertain the effects on listeners of the dialects of Ford and Carter in the 1976 presidential debates, a questionnaire was administered to 252 students who…

Children who learn a dialect differ in pronunciation, syntax, or both from children who learn standard English. It has been assumed that dialectal differences contribute to difficulties in learning to read. Another question is whether a disadvantaged child who speaks a dialect is exposed to a language environment rich enough for him to make normal…

Four realizations of the copula occur in English, two in both Anglo and Black English and two in Black English and in some varieties of Anglo English but not in standard English. This paper describes the use of the copula in English and identifies the phonological, syntactic, and semantic factors which are believed to condition its realization in…