Purpose: The inability to accurately recall sentences has proven to be a clinical marker of specific language impairment (SLI); this task yields moderate-to-high levels of sensitivity and specificity. However, it is not yet known if these results hold for speakers of dialects whose nonmainstream grammatical productions overlap with those that are…

Purpose: We compared teacher ratings as measured by the Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL; Dickinson, McCabe, & Sprague, 2001, 2003) and Children's Communication Checklist-Second Edition (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) to 2 established screeners, the Part II of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test (DELV-ST-II;…

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…

Purpose: Overt marking of "BE" in nonmainstream adult dialects of English is influenced by a number of linguistic constraints, including the structure's person, number, tense, contractibility, and grammatical function. In the current study, the authors examined the effects of these constraints on overt marking of "BE" in…

The transcript of and guide to a two-cassette course designed to assist speakers of Black English in erasure of their accents includes an introduction on Black and Standard English usage, an explanation of the system used in this course, the pronunciation symbols used, and an explanation of how to change or eliminate trouble spots. The course is…

Grounded in integrated and excerpt style (Emerson, et al., 1995), this article chronicles Mr. Lehrer, an English teacher who provides his students access to standard and nonstandard writing conventions. Student writing samples and discursive practices illustrate enhanced awareness of distinctions between nonstandard language (African American…

This digest discusses the different dialects children bring to the school environment and how U.S. schools deal with these differences. Reference is made to the Ann Arbor (Michigan) case in which a group of African-American parents sued the local school system on behalf of their children, claiming the school was denying their children equal…

Standard English has not disappeared, but merely changed as it "must" change when the dominant class setting the standard undergoes change. If teachers are to succeed in persuading pupils to change their language, they must know and teach the standard as it is, not as it used to be, while still implanting in the minds of some students…

The characteristics of several nonstandard dialects of American English are presented in this paper in the form of an inventory of features. It has been compiled with the recognition that nonstandard dialects are governed by pronunciation and grammatical rules and that within the broad category of nonstandard dialects, regional and ethnic…

Materials concerning dialects and language variation are presented here as background information for a workshop on English dialect differences in elementary and secondary schools. Articles and essays include: "Grammatical, Phonological and Language Use Differences across Cultures" (Walt Wolfram); "A Linguistic Description of Social Dialects"…

Involving students in an active study of dialect differences will enhance their own self awareness and their knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity. (JH)

Fourth-grade students (45 black and 45 white) were assigned to one of three groups defined by degree of teacher use of nonstandard English (standard English, moderate nonstandard English, or high nonstandard English). Each group was presented a lesson involving computing areas of rectangles and right triangles. After the lesson, each group was…

An international conference on creole languages and educational development was held at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, from July 24-28, 1972. It was attended by scholars from Africa, Australia, Hawaii, the Caribbean region, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. The papers presented were descriptions of a…