Language development in disadvantaged children and the research related to this area are the subjects of this issue of the IRCD Bulletin. The first part discusses the functions of the various components of language and the effects of language deprivation on disadvantaged youngsters. The educational approaches to teaching language fundamentals…

All of the students, both black and white, in three ninth-grade English classes in rural southwest Virginia were taped reading a specified passage. They then wrote at least one page in response to questions and completed the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. The tapes and writing samples were analyzed for the presence of specified phonological and…

Haida as spoken by residents of Hydaburg today seems to differ from the Masset dialect reported by Swanton (1911:209). This paper attempts to describe the pronoun system of Haida now in use in Hydaburg and to make a preliminary analysis of the changes which appear to have occurred since the accounts of Swanton and Harrison (1895). The following…

The study described here was intended to test Basil Bernstein's contention that different types of speech patterns can be identified for lower and middle class children, and that lower class children may, because of their speech behavior, have difficulty in performing cognitive tasks necessary for success in the school situation. Spontaneous…

This book is the fifth in a series of publications concerning the position and role of language in a large metropolitan area. In this sociolinguistic description Detroit is chosen as a case study of a large Northern urban area which has shown a dramatic increase in its Negro population within the last half century. The primary goal of the study…

The occurrence of the two allomorphs of the indefinite article in standard English ("a" before nouns or noun clauses beginning with consonant sounds and "an" before those beginning with vowel sounds) is a concept similar to those studied in the general concept formation paradigm. The acquisition of this grammatical concept was examined using 80…

These materials, a self-instructional workbook, a teacher's manual and accompanying tapes, are designed for students grades 7 through 12 who are speakers of the dialect sometimes called "Black Nonstandard." The terms "standard" and "nonstandard" are avoided, however, "informal" being used for the child's own dialect and "formal" for the English…

This variable rule analysis of the indefinite article "an" was done by means of a computer program developed by H. Cedergren and D. Sankoff of Montreal. The data was collected from 45-minute interviews with three different groups of college students essentially alike in age: (1) 13 whites from Louisiana, (2) 12 blacks from southwestern Ohio, and…

This paper presents ideas concerning speech communication education for black students and discusses some of the difficulties that exist. Black Americans have not shared in the material wealth in America because blacks are systematically excluded as trespassers in the white world on the basis of race, not speech. The assumption that the first step…

The speech habits of the most oppressed --and the largest-- segment of the black population in the United States did not spring solely from an inability to handle acceptable forms of spoken English, nor mainly from the limitations caused by the particular stock of words known to the speaker. Black slang stems from a somewhat disseminated rejection…

The junior high and senior high school English teacher should not judge dialect speakers as inferior to speakers of standard English but should rather be concerned with teaching his students the power and use of dialects. At the same time, he should capitalize on the students' dialect skills to teach them standard English skills. Teaching…

Research on language attitudes and performances of prospective teachers shows the need for special training to prepare teachers to work with "linguistically different" students. An attempt was made to develop, and test the effectiveness of, such training. Twenty-six prospective teachers conducted an Informal Reading Inventory on the reading of a…

Although some educators have advocated eradication of Black American English and other non-standard American English dialects in formal school training, it is recognized that many dialects are effectively used to a great degree by many Americans. Black American English, like other dialects, is a legitimate linguistic system that has logic,…

The focus group method has rapidly gained credibility among researchers in many fields, including public health researchers. The increased use of focus groups by public health researchers has underscored the demonstrable need for the capacity to apply this method of research among populations with limited abilities in or cultural resistance to…

The author defines literacy as a communication skill and argues that India's national adult education program should promote vernacular literacy rather than standard language literacy, using the traditional vernacular oral communication channels with writing as an extension of but not a replacement for the oral mode. (MF)