The English spoken by second generation Puerto Ricans in Harlem is influenced by black English heard in the surrounding community, standard English used in the school, and the Spanish-influenced English used by the first generation Puerto Rican community. The study of these influences is conducted according to recently developed sociolinguistic…

The child in a bilingual or bidialectal situation must increase his skills so that he may function successfully in a wider variety of situations and know how and when to use both language codes. The curriculum described here, used in Head Start classes, is a carefully programmed, very detailed presentation of syntactic patterns that appear with…

Noting the close relationship among language, thought, culture, personality, and self awareness, anthropological linguistics acknowledges the powerful and real function language styles play in human life, the close attachment between the individual and his natural manner of speech, and the sensitivity that surrounds an individual's attachment to…

There has been disagreement among linguists and psychologists concerning the age at which children develop social perceptions of others on the basis of difference in speech. The purpose of the present study was to determine in what ways eight- and nine-year-old children from different socioeconomic backgrounds might react to dialect differences.…

The debate continues about regional norms for English usage around the world, although the discussion has become more realistic and less didactic. Educated non-native varieties are increasingly accepted, distinctions are being made between national and international language uses, and localized varieties are no longer considered as necessarily…

The essays in this volume cover a range of sociopolitical aspects of Indian language planning (i.e., the politics of dialect, the role of the linguist, and the historical foundations of contemporary language problems), problems faced by the actual experiences of Indian language renewal efforts, and the relationship of Indian language renewal and…

A cloze test was administered to 210 seventh grade students of low socioeconomic status to determine whether dialect and second language interfered with adolescents' use of print language during the process of silent reading. The population was comprised of black, Chicano, and white students. Based on the exact cloze scores, 24 triples were…

RECENT RESEARCH ON THE NATURE OF NONSTANDARD ENGLISH DIALECTS HAS INDICATED THAT CERTAIN ARCHAIC SPEECH FORMS ASSOCIATED WITH CREOLE LANGUAGES ARE PRESERVED IN THE SPEECH OF URBAN NEGRO CHILDREN. THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE BELIEVES THAT LANGUAGE PROGRAMS FOR THESE CHILDREN SHOULD BE BASED ON A MORE COMPLETE LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF THEIR LANGUAGE…

This paper focuses attention on the kinds of research assumptions that are present in the literature on language, and which can be found in the "myths" about family structure and motivation. Three major professions are concerned with describing the language and cognitive abilities of black children--(1) educators, who believe these…

This document comprises the final report of the Detroit Dialect Study (see also AL 001 422 and AL 001 419). In order to contrast the speech patterns of various socio-economic groups, the research design included--(1) randomly selecting approximately 700 Detroit residents of four major age groups from an enumerated population providing as few…

The relevance of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics to language instruction is discussed. English as a second language has traditionally been ignored by English departments, and second language teaching in general has received little attention in language departments because of the emphasis on literary studies. ESL and EFL have emerged under…

This manual is designed to introduce teachers to basic principles of language analysis which can be immediately applied to classrooms populated by non-English speaking or language handicapped children. Programed exercises covering major units of study are included with follow-up discussion on: (1) nature of language; (2) attitudes toward language;…

This document attempts to make necessary information on linguistics available to teachers of disadvantaged children. Its first section discusses the three dimensions of language differences--historical, regional, and social--that account for usages frequently condemned without being understood. The second aims at providing a deeper understanding…

This study examines the attitudes which black high school students hold toward other blacks when they speak standard English and when they speak black English. Tenth-grade black students listened to recordings of black speakers, each using both standard English and black English for the same text. The students were asked to judge the speakers on…

This evaluation report presents the details and results of an experimental, compensatory language program designed to improve the standard English language facility of young aboriginal children on the assumption that this would contribute to improvement in reading and other aspects of academic performance. The pilot program was administered during…