When films rich in cinematic discourse are translated, "character equivalence", the extent to which translated dialogue distorts identities in the original film, may pose a special challenge for the screen translator. This article discusses this issue in the context of "Talk to me" (Lemmons 2007), a film which showcases…

Language instruction in secondary education is dominated by standard language ideology--a view of language that sanctions one ("standard") variety at the expense of other ("nonstandard") ones. While it is clear that students need access to privileged rhetorical forms, it is similarly clear that most current pedagogies do not facilitate such access…

Earlier sociolinguistic studies distinguish between Standard English and Black English with respect to indirect question formation. Standard English typically does not invert the tense-marker "do" in the imbedded question ("Ask John if he played basketball today") while Black English does ("Ask John did he play basketball today"). In fact, the…

One of the most significant problems that linguists face in their attempts to describe Vernacular Black English (VBE) is the matter of fluctuating forms. It is consistently observed that speakers appear to fluctuate between a socially stigmatized variant and its presumed nonstigmatized counterpart. Fluctuations in VBE have often been viewed as a…

Examines viewers' perceptions of characters and their speech to see if: (1) the language of the characters corresponds to the language of Black speech communities as described by sociolinguists; (2) White viewers perceive language as important in their perceptions of the characters; and (3) White viewers are more likely to identify with speakers…

Examined the tense system of Samana English, a lineal descendant of early nineteenth-century American Black English. A past tense marker comparable in surface form, function, and distribution to that of Standard English was found. Comparison with varieties of contemporary Black English Vernacular (BEV) and English-based Creoles showed a structural…

Explores how a speech variety close to oratorical standard English is learned in one Afro-American peasant community in the West Indies. Material gathered during two field trips, one supported by a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and the other by a National Institute of Mental Health grant. (VM)

Originally appeared in Workpapers: Teaching English as a Second Language," Volume 5 (June 1971), Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles, California. (VM)

Contends that despite many overlapping characteristics, second dialect teaching requires a methodology distinct from that used in second language teaching, and discusses psychological, sociological, cultural, and linguistic aspects of second dialect teaching. (FB)

Results of this research lead to a discussion of the possibility and implications of Negro nonstandard English being a distinct quasi-foreign" language system. (MB)

Increasing language skills in black children is not dependent on teaching them the ability to perform in standard dialect. Appears in "The Florida FL Reporter special anthology issue, "Linguistic-Cultural Differences and American Education. (FWB)

Despite the recent focus on the role of dialect differences in creating learning difficulties for speakers of nonstandard dialects of English, research has tended to concentrate on difficulties related to speaking and reading, while ignoring those involved in teaching writing to these students. This paper attempts to meet the need for such studies…

This study was designed to investigate, describe, and compare the intonation patterns of Black English and Standard English speaking children in a reading (formal) and free discourse (informal) situation. Black English was defined as the linguistic code of the subjects sampled from the inner city black poverty area schools, and Standard English as…

Registers--language varieties set apart from other varieties by the social circumstances of their use--are linguistic universals operating in all speech communities. Ghetto black children learn to control registers pertinent to the domain of family and neighborhood--most of which are spoken in their vernacular. Ghetto children are also expected to…