Explores the history of the study of Black English and the history of researchers' and teachers' attitudes towards Black English and its study. (RB)

Results of questionnaires asking graduate students in reading courses to indicate whether they would correct specific examples of reading miscues and whether they thought the miscues came mostly from blacks, mostly from whites, or from both. (AA)

Discusses the need for teachers to be aware of social class and cultural differences in the use of language. (GO)

Programs for improving the standard English writing competencies of Black dialect speakers must employ the same methods and attitudes used in teaching Whites if such programs are intended to prepare students to be linguistically competent in society. (Author/MJL)

Study conducted to determine whether Black English speakers are likely to encounter problems in reading standard English. Results indicate no relationship between the use of Black English and subjects' grade level or reading performance. (Author/JLF)

Ten teachers comment on the Ann Arbor (Michigan) court case concerning language bias in the schools. (RL)

Presents 13 points about the relationship between Black English and reading; reports on books about Black English and teaching reading to Blacks; and suggests inservice materials for increasing teachers' knowledge about dialects. (JT)

Adult Basic Education instructors need to be introduced to the Black dialect to dispel misconceptions about the abilities of Black English speakers and to develop activities to help Black students in becoming bidialectal. (SK)

Evidence is inclusive that dialect interferes with learning to read, and there is research indicating that a teacher's bias against dialect can mean lowered expectations and lowered performance. (JMF)

Discusses nonstandard dialects, particularly Black English, in the classroom. (RM)

Explains misconceptions and re-assesses old attitudes about teaching dialects in an effort to affirm the student's right to his own language. (RB)

This document brings together three papers dealing with the teaching of standard English to speakers of substandard varieties of the language, as well as of English-based pidgins or creoles. The first two papers are by linguists. The essay "Foreign Language Teaching Methods in Quasi-Foreign Language Situations" by William A. Stewart is intended to…

This report summarizes the proceedings and outcomes of a working conference of experts, scholars, and educators, held at Stanford University on February 19-20, 1976. The goal of the conference was to discuss and improve tests constructed as part of an effort to improve the teaching of children who speak one or more varieties of Black English. The…

Raises four objections to a program of oral drills in standard English for children who speak black dialect. (HTH)

The relativistic viewpoint of the sociolinguist emphasizes the fully systematic but different nature of nonstandard dialects. In this paper, the author takes issue with various views that currently enjoy popularity in a number of disciplines but which violate basic linguistic and sociolinguistic premises about the nature of language. These views…