This study investigated the effect of black dialect upon the comprehension of standard reading material by using 50 third-grade students. A sentence repetition test was administered individually to each subject to select pupils for either the standard or the dialect group. Subjects were tested for oral comprehension and silent reading comprehension. No significant differences were found between the standard and the dialect group in oral comprehension. However, a significant difference was found between the scores of the two groups on the silent reading comprehension section of the test. The results of this study indicate that black dialect speakers are more proficient at understanding oral standard English than was formerly supposed. It was suggested that there is great overlap in the syntax and vocabulary of standard and non-standard English, and it is this common core which must be used to the advantage of all children. (SW)