Evidence is inclusive that dialect interferes with learning to read, and there is research indicating that a teacher's bias against dialect can mean lowered expectations and lowered performance. (JMF)

A syntactic analysis of the language spoken by Black characters in three Black situation comedies on television; "Sanford and Son,""The Jeffersons," and "Good Times." (PD)

Urges teachers to deal with one problem at a time in students' papers when attempting to get nonstandard speakers to write standard English. (DD)

Discusses the question of correct English usage, and of the equality of dialects. Available from the University of Alabama Press, Periodicals Department, P.O. Box 2877, University, Alabama 35486. (AM)

Describes the use of negation in three corpora representative of early to mid-19th-century African American English. The study examines the negative form "ain't," negative concord to indefinites and verbs, negative inversion and negative postposing. Findings reveal that the negation system of early African American English derived…

Assesses phonological continuity and change in the last stage of the moribund dialect called "Negerhollands" in the Danish West Indies (DWI). The article contrasts earlier and current views of this dialect, sketches language contact in the DWI, examines the last speaker's language history and vowel systems, and assesses variation in a…

Compares controversies surrounding actions by school boards in Hawaii and Oakland, California, to promote student fluency in standard English. Public reactions to these actions demonstrated general lack of understanding about languages and nonstandard dialects. Myths and characterizations about Hawaiian Creole English and African American…

Discusses the rise of Mexican Spanish as a distinct variety of Spanish and describes the regional and social dialects of contemporary Mexican Spanish. Although countless similarities exist between Mexican Spanish and the Chicano Spanish spoken in the southwestern United States, Mexican Spanish shows greater variability. (GR)

This study examined whether African-American children (n=10; ages 4-9) who deleted final consonants marked the presence of those consonants in some fashion. Results indicated that the children produced longer vowels preceding "deleted" voiced final consonants, suggesting that the children had knowledge of the final consonants perceived…

In an analysis of social class, social network, and gender, arguments suggest that gender difference often occurs prior to social class in accounting for sociolinguistic variation. Data are presented to show how all three variables may help account for language variation and change. (54 references) (Author/LB)

Listeners can explicitly categorize unfamiliar talkers by regional dialect with above-chance performance under ideal listening conditions. However, the extent to which this important source of variation affects speech processing is largely unknown. In a series of four experiments, we examined the effects of dialect variation on speech…

Throughout much of northeast Thailand (Isan), Lao is the dominant local language. Today, however, central and official Thai is rapidly becoming the dominant language throughout Isan. It is feared that Thailand may become monocultured and its citizens may lose their diversity in languages and culture. In this article, the author describes a…

As a first-grade teacher preparing for the upcoming year, I was shocked to learn that George was on my new roll. His previous teacher wrote that George was a "behaviour problem", was defiant, talked back to adults, didn't speak properly, was behind academically and spent over half of kindergarten in detention. George initially gave me negative…

Finding a way to integrate authentic learning experiences and explicit instruction is essential if teachers are to adapt to the current policy environment while at the same time acknowledging the rights of students to determine their own goals for literacy learning. Toward this end, the author presents a case study of one student's development as…

Speech, language, and composition professionals should take a leadership role in working toward a national public policy on language. The declining rates of literacy and educational achievement in AfroAmerican communities serve as evidence that such a policy is needed. However, the policy would govern language teaching and language use throughout…