The comprehension performance of Standard English (SE) and Black English (BE) speakers associated with language materials distinguished by segmental and suprasegmental features of black dialect was investigated. Also assessed was the nature of comprehension improvement on these materials by SE speakers who had been systematically exposed to black…

The papers collected in this volume support the theory that the language skills of the dialectically different child can form a solid matrix upon which a viable reading/learning environment can be organized. Chapters under the section "Focusing on the Problem" discuss nonstandard dialect problems and make some observations on cognition and…

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…

The language a child learns from and attends to is the speech of significant persons in his world, addressed to each other and to him. As the child gradually participates in this social interaction he learns communicative competence, i.e., the nonconscious, tacit knowledge that underlies speech behavior--knowledge of both the language and the…

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.…

Interrelationships between productive oral proficiency in black dialect and in standard English and reading comprehension of passages differing in dialect and content were investigated in a sample of 98 sixth-grade black students. Results indicated that students were better readers as their oral patterns of speech were more representative of…

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

Equivalent forms of listening comprehension, oral reading, and oral reading comprehension tasks in (1) standard English, (2) black English, standard orthography, and (3) black English, nonstandard orthography were administered to black, inner-city children. Subjects scored highest on black English, standard orthography and lowest on black English,…

This study explores the relationship between Black English skills acquired outside school and figurative language comprehension in standard English. Path analysis confirmed the direct influence of "sounding" skill (a Black language ability) on figurative language, comprehension for Black youth. Only general verbal ability affected White…

Examined cultural and instructional influences on comprehension of figurative language ("sounding") by elementary school children in Harlem and studied effects of a program of creative writing instruction provided by visiting writers. Concludes that special instruction tended to improve figurative language comprehension of children and…

This article presents an analysis of errors found in writing samples produced by Black children in urban schools. Errors influenced by Black-English oral usage, hypercorrections, and morphologic errors influenced by Black-English speech patterns are focused upon. (Author/DF)

Reexamines the persistent reading failure of black students in light of current research in an effort to encourage new efforts to discover the real cause or causes of the problem and to provide solutions. (FL)

The purpose of this study was to examine how two different speech varieties used during an oral reading and recall task influenced primary grade teachers' evaluations of reading comprehension and how teachers' attitudes toward Black English related to their evaluations. (Author/PN)

Revised version of a paper presented to the 1972 TESOL Convention in Washington, D.C. (DD)