An exploration of issues in language diversity addressing the nature of dialect, features of the dialect, features of black English Vernacular (BEV), linguistic phenomena in the black urban community, theories of the origins of BEV, and its social, economic, and political ramifications suggest that BEV, like other dialects, meets the needs of its users and that BEV speaking children are able to express cognitive processes adequately in their dialect. Educational solutions to reading problems espoused by those grounded in the diversity model are given in terms of linguistic factors. Investigators who focus on deficiency models furnish solutions which range from providing alternate forms of learning geared to a group's supposed area of cognitive strength, to removing the child from his environment. Integrated schooling, intensive training in Standard English before beginning to learn to read, and pre-school programs are also suggested. Solutions for teaching reading and language in inner cities espoused by diversity proponents include the initial use of logograms for syllables, the acceptance of dialect involved miscues for standard forms, the avoidance of the principal sources of dialect interference, and the use of beginning-to-read materials in dialect. This study advocates the use of a child's idiolect or characteristic speech patterns to formulate his own reading materials. (Author/AM)