A Prekindergarten Curriculum Supplement for Enhancing Mainstream American English Knowledge in Nonmainstream American English Speakers

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a curriculum supplement designed to enhance awareness of Mainstream American English (MAE) in African American English- (AAE-) speaking prekindergarten children. Method Children in 2 Head Start classrooms participated in the study. The experimental classroom received the Talking and Learning for Kindergarten program (Edwards, Rosin, Gross, & Chen, 2013), which used contrastive analysis to highlight morphological, phonological, and pragmatic differences between MAE and AAE. The control classroom received the Kindness Curriculum (Flook, Goldberg, Pinger, & Davidson, 2014), which was designed to promote mindfulness and emotional self-regulation. The amount of instruction was the same across the 2 programs. Both classrooms participated in pre- and posttest assessments. Results Children in the experimental classroom, but not the control classroom, showed significant improvement in 3 norm-referenced measures of phonological awareness and in an experimental measure that evaluated comprehension of words that are ambiguous in AAE, but unambiguous in MAE, because of morphological and phonological differences between the 2 dialects. Conclusion Although more research needs to be done on the efficacy of the Talking and Learning for Kindergarten program, these results suggest that it is possible to enhance AAE-speaking children's awareness of MAE prior to kindergarten entry.

An Interprofessional Approach to Dialect-Shifting Instruction for Early Elementary School Students

“…More culturally responsive strategies have sought to highlight linguist diversity by examining the differences between two dialects to help student's dialect shift or deploy MAE features in an academic context (Craig, 2010(Craig, , 2016Cumming, 1997;Edwards & Rosin, 2016;Fisher & Lapp, 2013;Fogel & Ehri, 2000;Justic & Redle, 2014;Maddahian & Sandamela, 2000;Moyle, 2015;Simpkins et al, 1975;Sweetland, 2006;Taylor, 1989;Wheeler & Swords, 2006;Wolfram et al, 1999). One method that incorporates linguistic diversity and encourages students to shift between AAE and MAE is dialect-shifting with contrastive analysis (Feigenbaum, 1970;Justice & Redle, 2014;Wheeler, 2005Wheeler, , 2008Wheeler & Swords, 2006).…”

“…Contrastive analysis compares specific features of different dialects to teach students to discern differences between the dialects. Dialect-shifting taught through contrastive analysis can increase awareness of linguistic features, encourage metacognitive skills, build on the linguistic knowledge students already possess, and promote linguistic flexibility, skills that are critical for dialect-shifting, reading, and writing (Conner, 2008;Craig & Washington, 2006;Edwards & Rosin, 2016;Wheeler, 2008).…”

“…Thus, there is still a need for concrete tools that support linguistic and cultural individuality while increasing reading and writing outcomes, which are especially important for younger students who are impacted by linguistic mismatch as soon as they enter the classroom (Charity et al, 2004;Craig et al, 2009;Hill, 2009). Researchers have demonstrated the promise of dialect-shifting instruction to improve teacher perspectives around linguistic variation and students' academic outcomes (Bailey, 1968;Craig, 2010Craig, , 2016Edwards & Rosin, 2016;Feigenbaum, 1970;Fisher & Lapp, 2013;Golden, 1962;Hurst, 1965;Johnson et al, 2017;Lin, 1965;Moyle, 2015;Pearson et al 2013;Rickford et al, 2004;Smitherman, 2015;Taylor, 1989;Wolfram et al, 1999).…”

Re-thinkin' Language Rules: The Educational and Psychological Impacts of African American Students Navigating Various Language Practices

“…This problem is most evident among African American students, as the previously cited statistics state (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, 2018). Although research has proven that many African American students speak AAVE (Boutte & Johnson, 2013Edwards & Rosin, 2016 at least to some degree, there remains scarce acknowledgement or incorporation of it in the classroom. Among the few educators that attempt to acknowledge the use of AAVE among students, code-switching pedagogies has become a popular practice to utilize as a way of making English/Language Arts (ELA) instruction more practical for students.…”

“…The cultural disconnect that exists between the language students speak and the language they are being taught does influence the labeling o f Black students as low-performing in both reading and writing (Brown et al, 2015;Treiman, 2004;Treiman & Bowman, 2015). Schools are tasked with teaching MAE, while a great deal of African American students grow up speaking AAVE in their homes (Edwards & Rosin, 2016;Boutte & Johnson, 2013), before they ever enter a classroom. As a result, many students find themselves fighting to maintain their cultural identities so as not to assimilate to mainstream cultural norms (Fordham, 1999;K.…”