This study looks at how African-American (AA) dialects in Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" novel should be translated into the Indonesian language. For the data, sayings by AA characters featuring the African-American English (AAE) phonological dialect were selected. An emphasis was placed on how Twain makes use of…

In his article "Contraction, Deletion, and Inherent Variability of the English Copula" ("Language," 1969, William Labov asserts that the affinities of Black English (BE) with Standard English (SE) are evidenced by the fact that BE copula deletion occurs in those positions where SE copula contraction may occur. This paper examines the conclusions…

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…

Examines certain surface differences between Black English and Standard English and concludes that, with some minor exceptions, the underlying correspondences are identical. (FB)

Four realizations of the copula occur in English, two in both Anglo and Black English and two in Black English and in some varieties of Anglo English but not in standard English. This paper describes the use of the copula in English and identifies the phonological, syntactic, and semantic factors which are believed to condition its realization in…

The Dialect Differentiation Measure (DDM) provides an objective, quantifiable means of identifying speakers of Black English. Three production tasks, designed to constrain the range of linguistic constructions with which a child may respond, elicit seven phonological and syntactic features characteristic of Black English. The DDM was tried out in…

An investigation was conducted to test the assumption that Black English (BE) dialect interferes with reading. Data from 45 lower standard English (SE) speakers were collected and analyzed to measure racial group differences on auditory discrimination, oral reading, BE phonology usage, and silent reading comprehension. Dialect differences analyzed…

Compares the linguist's treatment of the speech of Negro children with that of educational psychologists such as Bereiter and Engelmann, and demonstrates the deficiencies of the latter. (FB)

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

This study examines the effect of classrooms where standard English is spoken on the speech of Black English speaking children. The research analyzed samples of language used by 22 Black English speaking children in seven kindergarten classrooms in three Madison, Wisconsin public schools during one academic year, 1977-78. The following questions…

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…

The teacher working with second-dialect students requires knowledge of the phonology used by his students to deal, not primarily with their pronunciation problems, but, with their reading and writing problems. In language classrooms, priority should be given to the aspects of language used by children that identify them as nonstandard speakers.…

THIS PAPER DISCUSSES THE INTERSECTION OF THE NONSTANDARD ENGLISH DIALECT OF THE URBAN GHETTOS AND STANDARD ENGLISH. THE AUTHORS DRAW ON SOME PRELIMINARY DATA GATHERED IN PERSONAL INTERVIEWS, INCLUDING A RANDOM SAMPLE OF 100 LOWER- AND MIDDLE-INCOME ADULTS IN THREE AREAS OF SOUTH CENTRAL HARLEM. ALTHOUGH NEGRO SPEECH PATTERNS HAVE BEEN EXPLAINED AS…