As part of the development of a battery of tests to determine proficiency in black standard and nonstandard speech, a test, consisting of 20 items involving verbal and pictorial cues, was developed and administered to 27 third graders and 32 sixth graders. Results were analyzed to determine test reliability and correlation with other test scores.…

If we want monority students to be able to speak out effectively for their rights, we must teach them, without destroying their own voices, to use language that cannot be labeled substandard. (JH)

This is an outline of the beginning of dialectology, its growth, its methods, and changes in approach over time. Various dialectology studies and linguistic atlases, from early 19th century to present, are cited. Use of modern techniques in further research is suggested. Available from Western Washington State College, Bellingham, WA 98225. (TL)

Paper prepared for the International Association of University Professors of English, Dublin, August 19-24, 1968.

This is a report on a study of the attitudes of French-speaking young people, aged 10 to 17 years, toward French as it is spoken in two sectors of Quebec City. One sector, Sainte-Foy, is mainly upper middle class; the other, Saint-Sauveur, is economically and socially disadvantaged. The research was carried out on the basis of work in French and…

The number of minority children who are placed in special education programs is disproportionate to the number of minority children in school. One factor causing this situation is that dialect interference causes lower reading scores among minority children. Since few standardized tests instruct the teacher to ignore errors attributable to…

THIS TEXT COMPRISES A SURVEY OF THE ESTONIAN LANGUAGE, WHICH IS GROUPED HERE WITH LIVONIAN, VOTIC, AND A PART OF WESTERN FINNISH, TO FORM THE SOUTHWESTERN BRANCH OF THE FINNIC (OR BALTO-FINNIC) LANGUAGES. THE AUTHORS' CLASSIFICATIONS AND A HISTORY OF THE STUDIES WHICH HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT IN ESTONIAN ARE PRESENTED, FOLLOWED BY A PRESENTATION OF…

Intended for use by teachers, actors, linguists, sociologists, and others interested in dialect study, this catalog lists the holdings of the Dialect Tape Center at the University of South Alabama (Mobile), an organization that was founded to provide ready access to tape recordings of representative American English as it is currently spoken…

This paper relates linguistic theory and bidialectalism, synthesizes theory and research concerning bidialectalism, and presents suggestions for a curriculum designed to maximize students' self-conscious control over their speech. Instructional activities, which have standard English as their goal, include pattern drills, short memorized dramas,…

A COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF SPOKEN WORDS AND PHRASES WAS OBTAINED IN 1959 FROM THE RESPONSES OF 33 NATIVE INFORMANTS FROM 23 COUNTIES IN TENNESSEE, GEORGIA, MISSISSIPPI, AND ALABAMA. INFORMANTS WERE ASKED TO IDENTIFY PICTURES, AND THEIR RESPONSES WERE RECORDED ON TAPE AND TRANSCRIBED. A COMPUTER WAS UTILIZED TO PRODUCE LISTINGS OF PARTICULAR SPEECH…

RATHER THAN TEACHING PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OR LINGUISTICS, NEITHER OF WHICH IS LIKELY TO INCREASE THE ABILITY TO WRITE, SPEAK, OR LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE, THE ENGLISH TEACHER SHOULD GUIDE THE STUDENTS INTO AN INQUIRY ABOUT THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE. SUCH AN INQUIRY WOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THAT LANGUAGE USAGE IS DETERMINED BY THE SOCIAL SITUATION AND THAT…

This study attempted to assess the linguistic competence of black lower-class speakers within each of two language systems: standard English and Black English. The subjects were 72 black kindergarten, third-, and sixth-graders in a predominantly black community in Toledo, Ohio. All children attending the school were considered lower-class, since…

Although lower socioeconomic status (SES) black children have been shown to be inferior to middle-SES white children in communication accuracy, whether the problem is in encoding (production), decoding (comprehension), or both is not clear. To evaluate encoding and decoding separately, tape recordings of picture descriptions were obtained from…

The primary focus of this paper is on black children and the relationship between their productive and receptive language competencies. The solutions which have been proposed to solve the dilemma of black pupils' poor reading achievement are discussed. It is noted that none of the proposed solutions has the unqualified support provided by a mass…

The sixteen essays collected in this volume reflect a cross-section of ethnic and professional viewpoints toward Black English. Written by resident and visiting lecturers who took part in a seminar offered by the psychology department of Princeton University, the essays are grouped by subject areas: (1) "Definition" focuses on the schism between…