Describes research in which 28 black parents and community people were polled as to their attitudes toward vernacular and standard Black English. Attitudes were assessed in four domains--school, home, community and playground--and in four channels--reading, speaking, writing and listening. Standard Black English was preferred in all domains and…

Presents the results of three experiments using dialect readers in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to improve the reading comprehension of African American elementary and secondary school students. It is concluded that dialect readers represent a viable alternative for teaching AAVE speakers to read. (61 references) (MDM)

The research described here is part of a larger study dealing with the acquisition of language awareness in young children. (RM)

Much of the language and many constructs used in testing and assessment must be redefined in order for testing instruments to be valid for use with children of African-American descent. These children are products of unique linguistic environments. Current educational assessment tools are insensitive to the cultural-linguistic diversity of the…

The staff of the Program on Teaching and Linguistic Pluralism at the Center for Educational Research at Stanford University has been involved in a number of research efforts related to the teaching of reading and other language arts skills to Black Vernacular English speaking pupils. These efforts have culminated in the development of a number of…

This paper attempts an overview of language attitude studies through consideration of their history and theoretical basis. Studies of students' language attitudes are examined before a more extensive review is made of teachers' language attitudes, especially their attitudes toward the language of West Indian and Black American students.…

It is not necessary for Black children to lose their ethnic, linguistic, and cultural behavior patterns when learning standard English, if they are taught by enlightened teachers using innovative educational programs. (Author/MC)

Discusses an interview in which Marcyliena Morgan elaborates on the necessity to analyze both microlinguistic issues of grammar and phonology as well as larger issues of discourse pragmatics and language ideology. The interview touches on African American poetry, the convergence of African American and standard English, and oases and indirectness.…

Examined the classroom discourse of an African American urban community college teacher as she interacted with her class of predominantly African American students. The teacher employed African American English forms and allowed them to coexist alongside standard English. (24 references) (MDM)

These two related papers provide information on teacher attitudes toward black dialect use in the classroom and the measurement of such attitudes. The first paper reports on data from 176 administrators, counselors, teachers, and student teachers, revealing significant relationships between a teacher's definition of black dialect, attitudes toward…

It was hypothesized that prospective foreign language teachers would profess significantly more positive attitudes toward American English dialect differences than would prospective teachers of other subjects (English, mathematics, and social studies). The interaction of teacher attitudes and experience abroad, university attended, and urban…

In light of U.S. District Court Judge Charles W. Joiner's recent order regarding the treatment of Black English in the Ann Arbor, Michigan schools, the author reviews the development of Black English as a dialect, some of its features, and the debate over its treatment in the classroom. (SJL)

Examined the attitudes of 14 Saudi Arabian college students at Michigan State University toward Standard American English (SAE), Black English (BE), and Indian English (IE). Results found that the students favored SAE over BE and IE, and considered IE to be both a poor variety of English and inappropriate as a medium of instruction. (24…

Inner city teachers who had received special inservice training had significantly different attitudes toward nonstandard black dialects than did other inner city teachers. (Ed.)

Presents an extended review of Eleanor Wilson Orr's "Twice as Less: Black English and the Performance of Black Students in Mathematics and Science." Argues that the work sustains the fantasy of intellectuals that the basic injustices of society are subject to relatively simple technical correction. (RS)