Index of Productive Syntax for Children Who Speak African American English

Index of productive syntax for children who speak African American English.

PURPOSE The validity of the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn; Scarborough, 1990) for children who speak African American English (AAE) was evaluated by conducting an item analysis and a comparison of the children's scores as a function of their maternal education level, nonmainstream dialect density, age, and clinical status. METHOD The data were language samples from 62 children; 52 of the ...

NIH Contract N01-DC8-2104: Development and Validation of a Language Test for Children Speaking Non-Standard English: A Study of Children Who Speak African American English

Phonological milestones for African American English-speaking children learning mainstream American English as a second dialect.

PURPOSE This study provides milestones for phonological development in African American English (AAE) speakers who are learning Mainstream American English (MAE) as a second dialect. METHOD The Dialect Sensitive Language Test (DSLT; H. Seymour, T. Roeper, & J. G. de Villiers, 2000) was administered to a nationwide sample of typically developing children ages 4 through 12: 537 speakers of AAE ...

Dialect awareness and lexical comprehension of mainstream american english in african american english-speaking children.

PURPOSE This study was designed to examine the relationships among minority dialect use, language ability, and young African American English (AAE)-speaking children's understanding and awareness of Mainstream American English (MAE). METHOD Eighty-three 4- to 8-year-old AAE-speaking children participated in 2 experimental tasks. One task evaluated their awareness of differences between MAE an...

Evaluating the Grammars of Children Who Speak Nonmainstream Dialects of English.

In this article, we review three responses to the study and evaluation of grammar in children who speak nonmainstream dialects of English. Then we introduce a fourth, system-based response that views nonmainstream dialects of English, such as African American English (AAE) and Southern White English (SWE) as made up of dialect-specific and dialect-universal features. To illustrate the usefulnes...