Asserting that the literature of a people grows organically out of their experiences, this discussion focuses successively on folk tales and folk sons, stated to be the most important of the earliest forms of black literature in America; the Spiritual, stated to be the Black literary form which has proven most enduring; black English; slave…

The dialects of Mandekan, a language spoken widely in West Africa, are described. The information was collected for the benefit of students of the languages, developers of texts in any of the dialects, and researchers in Mandekan-speaking areas. A phonetic grid of vowels, consonants, and tone establishes a broad system of symbols for transcription…

The paper reports a pilot study of 280 entering first grade students to try to identify potential handicaps, giftedness, or other special needs. During the preregistration program Ss were given measures of visual acuity, auditory acuity, and language functioning. Language test data allowed the identification of six profile types for further…

One way to alleviate the hostile feelings of students whose dialects or idiolects interfere with their writing of Edited American English is to spend class time studying the differences between written and spoken English and examining the reasons such differences exist. The concept of a "grapholect," a national written language used by speakers of…

Focusing on the social variation of language, this paper provides an overview of basic sociolinguistic concepts deemed to be necessary information for teachers involved in the language and literacy development of children who speak nonstandard dialects. The first section of the paper discusses three things that teachers must understand about…

Hypercorrection occurs when a speaker of a lower-prestige dialect errs in the use of a form foreign to that dialect within the eyes of a speaker of the higher-prestige dialect from which the form is borrowed. Hypercorrection is sociolinguistically motivated and exists in two forms: (1) hypercorrect-ion, in which an otherwise "correct,"…

The frequencies and co-occurrence distributions of some of the prosodic features in the speech of children are discussed. The emphasis is on the determination of systems and structure of non-segmental lectal variability in the children's speech without primary reference to function. The primary data consisted of selected episodes of connected…

The paper presents guidelines for presenting a workshop on Ebonics (Black English) to regular and special education teachers. The author maintains that Ebonic speakers must be able to use both the language of their community as well as standard English. Workshop participants are assigned two Ebonic speaking children to apply Ebonic theory. Six…

A functioning communication skills course for minority students has developed five pedagogical principles and appropriate techniques for teaching such students effectively: treat the minority student as an individual, not as a representative of some preconceived group; pay attention to the content, not the dialectal form, of a student's messages;…

This paper provides information on black English to be used by teachers as they score errors and miscues on the oral part of informal reading inventories. The information is presented in order for teachers to understand items spoken in black English that are equivalents to standard English and that when spoken would indicate understanding of the…

IN ADDITION TO GIVING A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF VIETNAMESE, THIS TEXT CONTAINS A STUDY OF VIETNAMESE PRONUNCIATION, BASED ON THE EDUCATED SPEECH OF HANOI, WHICH IS CONSIDERED STANDARD. ANOTHER ENTIRE SECTION IS DEVOTED TO DIALECTAL DIFFERENCES, SPECIFICALLY TO COMPARISONS WITH THE SPEECH OF SAIGON. ALL PHONOLOGY IS…

THIS TEST--"VARIETIES OF ENGLISH"--WAS DESIGNED BY THE OREGON CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER FOR A SEVENTH-GRADE LANGUAGE CURRICULUM. IT IS INTENDED TO ACCOMPANY THE CURRICULUM UNITS AVAILABLE AS ED 010 149 AND ED 010 150. (MM)

THE SIX STORIES IN THIS COLLECTION ARE WRITTEN IN THE KURDISH DIALECT OF SULAIMANIA, THE LANGUAGE OF OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS AND TEXTBOOKS IN IRAQI KURDISTAN. THE VARIOUS THEMES INCLUDED ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF KURDISH CULTURE AND TRADITION. EACH SELECTION (WRITTEN IN KURDISH SCRIPT) IS FOLLOWED BY VOCABULARY AND EXPLANATORY NOTES IN ORDER OF…

THIS VOLUME OF THE LANGUAGE HANDBOOK SERIES IS INTENDED TO SERVE AS AN OUTLINE OF THE SALIENT FEATURES OF THE BENGALI LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY OVER 80 MILLION PEOPLE IN EAST PAKISTAN AND INDIA. IT WAS WRITTEN WITH SEVERAL READERS IN MIND--(1) A LINGUIST INTERESTED IN BENGALI BUT NOT HIMSELF A SPECIALIST IN THE LANGUAGE, (2) AN INTERMEDIATE OR ADVANCED…

Intended for adult literacy tutors in Britain who teach West Indian students, this booklet provides information about the history of Caribbean Creole English and about the ways in which it differs from Standard English. The five chapters contain discussions of the Caribbean setting; the differences between Pidgin and Creole English; Caribbean…