The study examined children's use of verbal -s marking (e.g., he "walks") in two nonmainstream dialects of English, African American English (AAE), and Southern White English (SWE). Verbal -s marking was of interest because there are gaps in the literature about the nature of this structure within and across typically developing children…

This study investigated differences in the writing styles of African American and European American test takers using a portfolio entry assessment as a means of examining writing style, focusing on language choice, rhetorical style, and organization. The portfolio entry was from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Middle…

Repudiates the theory that black dialect has African origins. Supports the British Isles influence theory. (FL)

Data from 33 teachers, responding on 12 semantic differential scales to 80 speech samples from 16 different kinds of children, were collected in a study of teacher evaluation of children's speech as related to race, sex, social status of the child, and topic of discourse, as well as to teacher race. A factor analysis was accomplished by use of a…