Purpose: Syntax provides critical support for both academic success and linguistic growth, yet it has not been a focus of language research in school-age African American children. This study examines complex syntax performance of African American children in second through fifth grades. Method: The current study explores the syntactic…

Little is known about mismatches between the language of mathematics testing instruments and the rich linguistic repertoires that African American children develop at home and in the community. The current study aims to provide a proof of concept and novel explanatory item response design that uses error analysis to investigate the relationship…

The linguistic awareness/flexibility hypothesis posits that children with better metalinguistic knowledge have improved reading related academic performance. To date, no research has analyzed the effect of morphological or phonological interventions on improving metalinguistic competence for nonstandard dialect users. Sixteen typically developing…

This study examined an in-service teacher's enactment of code-meshing and code-switching pedagogies in a clinical summer reading clinic, as a requirement for a reading specialist program. Thus, the enactment of code-meshing pedagogies was based upon embracing the students' use of African American English (AAE) in academic writing contexts and…

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the influence of spoken dialect density on writing and on the codevelopment of reading and writing in African American English-speaking (AAE) children from first through fifth grades. The sample included 869 students, ranging in age from 5.8 to 12.5 years. Results indicated that dialect density…

The achievement gap between African American students and their Caucasian peers is a problem that has persisted within the educational system since the early 1970s. Researchers have been investigating whether differences in oral language, such as, Nonmainstream American English (NMAE) use contribute to this gap. There is also concern from…