Two studies compared the impact of black and white audiences on black students' writing style. In the first study, eight students in an all-black intermediate composition class completed one argumentative draft addressed to black opponents and one addressed to white opponents on two different topics. The essays were examined for stylistic features…

In a case study investigation of six black college freshmen from low socio-economic and black nonstandard English-speaking backgrounds, it was found that, as hypothesized, the students reflected in their writing a performance capability in standard English sufficient to render them functionally bidialectal. For these students, certain hypothesized…

A study investigated the relationship between phonological features in the oral reading of black West Indians and their reading comprehension. Subjects were 54 college students at the College of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas. Each subject was recorded reading two passages and completed two cloze tests. The tapes then were analyzed for nine…

Catherine Prendergast challenges compositionists to investigate how privileging whiteness perpetuates racism in the classroom. In response to Prendergast's challenge, this paper examines the "white ground" of composition classes by complying with Ian Marshall and Wendy Ryan's suggestion to "look closely at how the "politics of…

A guide to a college course on black rhetoric, containing objectives, a subject outline, learning activities, evaluation methods, student reading materials and audio-visual aids, and a 24 item bibliography. (DD)

A study conducted to examine in detail the oral reading performance and comprehension of five poor readers among college freshmen at Tennessee State University confirms the belief that dialects need not interfere with reading or with learning to read. (AOS)

Uses W.E.B. Du Bois' prophetic analysis of the color line problem to forecast the 21st century's language line problem, noting how language is central to the reproduction of racialized identities at school and in society for African American students. Juxtaposes language and cultural and social reproduction, hegemony, and race and articulates the…

Describes political definitions and forms of power in the modern era. Discusses echoes lingering from the collision between early American linguistics and the late black rebellion against racism. Argues that, despite hopes of attaining democracy through language, there remains little democracy in language. (HB)

Sixteen African Americans affiliated with a university reported on their experiential, attitudinal, and descriptive responses to Black English Vernacular (BEV). Three issues emerged: BEV as a label, the possibility that BEV was socially constructed, and the perception that BEV is a limited linguistic system. Interview questions are appended. (44…

The performance and attitudes of African-American students of foreign languages are discussed in this digest. Three major areas are reported: (1) Black English and foreign language learning, including theories of language deficiency, sociolinguistic research, phonology and syntax; (2) research on the performance of African-American students of…

Many linguists, sociologists, and educators see the nonstandard form of speech used by African-American students as a substandard, imperfect copy of Standard English (SE), marred by a number of careless and ignorant errors, rather than as something to be studied and understood in its own right. Many African-American college students continue to…

A study was undertaken to examine how the variables that comprise the construct social situation (interlocutor, setting, and topic) influenced which language variety--standard English (SE) or black English (BE)--was chosen as a means of communication within a black English-speaking community and how that language variety was used to elaborate…

The sixteen essays collected in this volume reflect a cross-section of ethnic and professional viewpoints toward Black English. Written by resident and visiting lecturers who took part in a seminar offered by the psychology department of Princeton University, the essays are grouped by subject areas: (1) "Definition" focuses on the schism between…

The value of teaching Standard English as the language of school and mainstream middle class culture is undisputed, yet Black English, as a non-standard English dialect, has great potential as an instructional tool in the composition classroom. The use of the black dialect can help expand black students' intellectual potential by de-stigmatizing…

Postscores provide evidence that the phonological patterns of black college students can be improved significantly as a result of speech remediation techniques. However, these remediation techniques do not seem to affect self concept either positively or negatively. (Author/AM)