Teachers should build on students' existing speech patterns, helping students to gain aural understanding of standard English, and providing oral and written practice. (NH)

Describes a study using matched-guise technique designed to (1) determine how West Welsh preadolescents would react to Welsh speakers reading a passage of prose in one of three language varieties (Received Pronunciation English, Welsh-Accented English, Welsh) and (2) to examine what effect language of testing might have on children's social…

Discusses ethnic speech styles in New Zealand, the extent to which they can be detected, and how they and English received pronunciation are evaluated by listeners. (EKN)

A study of 51 speakers in rural Illinois showed fronting and raising of (aw) to be considerably more advanced among countryside dwellers than among town residents. Discusses some of the social and economic changes contributing to this phonological shift. (EKN)

Discusses residual bilingualism as a means of identifying the nature, quantity, and distribution of Dutch-origin elements in the speech of different users of French in Brussels. Observations on code switching in a community of monoglots, bilinguals, and immigrants help provide a frame of reference for similar complex bilingual contexts elsewhere.…

Recounts how a teacher used herself as a model to motivate black students to speak standard English. (JL)

Undertakes a critical examination of the basic premises underlying linguistic and conceptual training programs for preschool children. Shows how widely used preschool programs are based on inadequate assumptions concerning language, language use, and communication. (Author/BRR)

Reviews the important issues surrounding the practice of including formal grammar in the English curriculum of secondary schools. Addresses in the process such questions as whether or not traditional prescriptive grammar has an educational value, why prescriptive grammar has come under attack, and how students benefit from prescriptive grammar…

Analyzes some of the educational problems that can arise from teachers' lack of awareness of the systematic differences between standard English and nonstandard dialects. Discusses the serious linguistic and social consequences of the situation in Britain, where most schoolchildren speak nonstandard English. (SK)

Official recognition of Black English as a dialect has implications for all public school systems that have minority enrollments. The Ann Arbor decision points to changes that should be made in teacher and institutional attitudes and in the administration and interpretation of standardized tests. (SK)