The formal study of social dialects has received increasing attention since about the middle of the sixties. In linguistics, the study of social dialectology has resulted in the clear demonstration of the importance of sociolinguistic variation in linguistic theory in contrast to the former preoccupation with linguistic universals. In education,…

Too often the dialect of the teacher or the student, or both, creates interferences which hinder the educational process. By being aware of potential problems in pronunciation, lexicon, and syntax, the teacher can explain or avoid language interferences. Furthermore, the teacher can consciously help the student avoid pejorative connotations some…

Comparative judgments of vocal quality, speech fluency, and confidence of black and white speakers in southern universities were tested to determine the interrelationships of (1) perception of vocal quality and judgment of confidence in the voice, (2) quality and fluency, and (3) speech fluency and judgment of confidence, and to ascertain the…

This study, an outgrowth of the "Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada," based on atlas field records covering the entire Eastern United States, enables the author to trace the geographical spread and also the social distribution of the linguistic features that are treated. Research demonstrates how early culture centers and…

At the prekindergarten and kindergarten age, children generally appear to be oblivious to dialect differences and fail to associate these differences in language variety with black speakers. (JH)

This article describes a process by which the number of apparent cognates between Standard Japanese and the Hirara dialect increased, a process in conflict with the accepted theory that as time goes by, the number of cognates between related languages declines. (CLK)

"Gastarbeiterdeutsch" includes varieties of German spoken by the many foreign workers employed in low-paid, less desirable jobs in Germany. It is characterized by reduction and simplification of syntactic and semantic forms. Study of this dialect reveals patterns of natural language acquisition necessary for communication, useful in classroom…

An idealized model of mutual second dialect acquisition in a bidialectal speech community is presented, placed in historical context, and used to illustrate the inherent social nature of hypercorrection and hypocorrection. The controversy surrounding hypercorrection for Black English is reviewed, and hypocorrection is shown to reinforce…

This article discusses basic writing pedagogy at a two-year tribal college, an institution type that has not been visible in the basic writing literature to date. In many tribal college contexts, socioeconomic challenges, under-resourced K-12 schools, and linguistic diversity all contribute to high student placement rates into…

The stated intent of this book is to "contribute to the development of more socially aware and more linguistically oriented classroom teachers and to provide these teachers with methods for implementing their new awareness." Four sections provide chapters that discuss various aspects of the phenomenon of dialect clash. A historical…

Designed as a diagnostic tool for assisting early childhood and kindergarten teachers, the Sentence Repetition Task seeks to distinguish children who speak a different dialect and are normal in language development from children who speak a different dialect and are developmentally delayed. This technique is based on the work of Menyuk (1964),…

This study supports the hypothesis that educated white listeners react negatively to the phonological variations of non-standard English. White college freshmen and seniors listened to a recorded tape of ten speakers, black and white with standard and non-standard styles of pronunciation, all reading the same passage. Students were asked to judge…

Two studies are discussed in this research report, which was presented at the 1973 American Educational Research Association meeting. The first study investigated whether black children would evaluate Black English selections more favorably than standard English selections and whether favorable evaluation would lead to greater comprehension of the…

Analyzes an Afro-American sermon and a disputed speech by a Black political leader to mixed audience. Dialect alternants signal switching between contrasting styles in both. Conversational inference is shown to depend not only on grammar, lexical meanings, and conversational principles, but also on constellations of speech variants, rhythm, and…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the instructor's accent influences the students' learning outcome, as well as how a student's accent perceptions may affect their learning. Unlike native voices, accented voices are not natural to the native speakers; therefore, it requires more cognitive resources for processing the information,…