This article addresses teachers' uptake of Black and Latina/o youth linguistic repertoires within the official space of an English Language Arts (ELA) classroom and how youth respond to corrective feedback that is focused on the form of their messages, rather than their function. Corrective feedback offered by one Latina teacher indexed larger…

The purpose of this study was to examine African American children's performance on a phonological awareness task that included items reflecting differences between African American English (AAE) and mainstream American English. The relationship between spoken production of AAE forms and performance on phonological awareness, vocabulary, and…

As social justice-oriented teachers and teacher educators, it can seem as if we are fighting a losing battle against neoliberal education policies designed to disrupt and dismantle our field. In this article we draw upon traditions of critical race theory, counterstorying, and critical hope to examine the complex realities of contemporary teacher…

Purpose: The current meta-analysis examines recent empirical research studies that have investigated relations among dialect use and the development and achievement of reading, spelling, and writing skills. Method: Studies published between 1998 and 2014 were selected if they: (a) included participants who were in Grades K-6 and were typically…

This article informs us about the need for facilitating code-switching pedagogies that call for teacher-led scaffolding of students' home languages to negotiate informal and formal contexts for writing and speaking. Varied strategies are guided by three mentor texts the author has conceptualized or enacted in practice and research among middle…

Many African American students have been tested using speech pathology diagnostics that are ill suited to their distinctive linguistic circumstances. Slave descendants of African origin share a unique linguistic heritage in contrast and comparison to every other immigrant group residing within America. In an effort to overcome the legacy of…

African American English has a rich oral tradition, with identifiable features across all 5 systems of language--phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. This is an investigation of the extent to which pragmatic features of African American oral storytelling traditions are apparent in the written stories of African American…

Produced in 1977, "Bridge: A Cross Culture Reading Program" could have transformed what we presently know as urban education. However, "Bridge" met with the disapproval of parents, communities, and school districts. The execution of a truly transformative curriculum died as an experimental project implemented in urban school…

There is a growing interest in the quandary of literacy and proficiency amongst K-12 students in the United States. Similarly, because of uncharted research about biliteracy amongst African-American students in urban schools and benefits of Spanish fluency, communicative gaps are increased and fluency is breached. If advantages are properly…

This case describes St. Lucy School, a K-8 elementary school in a mid-sized urban center. St. Lucy has traditionally served African American students. In the past 10 years, the neighborhood has experienced a significant shift in population, such that many Latino/a families are now entering the school. In response to these changes, the school…

Educators in the United States have worked for decades to create school environments where exciting learning takes place, with students deeply engaged as they expand their ways to explore new knowledge. Although some schools provide cutting-edge opportunities for middle-class students, the challenges continue for underserved students who start…

This essay explores Black male literacy practices as institutional critique at a large Midwestern land grant university. Through documenting a student's process of reinstatement at his university, I demonstrate how vernacular perspectives, language, and networking strategies are used for developing self-efficacy and critical literacies. Black…

Purpose: This study examined child production of narrative features and of African American English (AAE) during a wordless storybook oral narrative task. Method: Participants were 30 AAE-speaking African American kindergarten and 1st grade students from low- and mid-socioeconomic status homes. Story grammar (SG), story literary technique (SLT),…

Purpose: The purpose of this longitudinal study was twofold: to examine shifting from African American English (AAE) to mainstream American English (MAE) across the early elementary grades, when students are first exposed to formal instruction in reading; and to examine how metalinguistic and cognitive variables influenced the students' dialectal…

The dialects that college students speak represent a type of diversity that can influence many elements of their experiences in college, including academic experiences. In this study, we examined the influence of speaking a stigmatized dialect on academic experiences for White and African American students (both male and female) from rural…