Complex Syntax Production of African American Preschoolers

Abstract

This study examined changes in the complex syntax production of 85 3- and 4-year-old African American children and the role of child (i.e., gender, age, African American English) and family (i.e., home environment) factors. The mean percentage of utterances containing one or more complex syntax forms was 6.2% at 3 years and 11.7% at 4 years. Girls produced more complex syntax forms than did boys. Complex syntax production increased significantly between age 3 and age 4 and correlated positively with mean length of utterance in words. Children from more responsive and stimulating home environments produced more complex syntax at 4 years. African American English was not related to the amount of complex syntax used.

BE, DO, and Modal Auxiliaries of 3-Year-Old African American English Speakers

“…Finally, a number of AAE studies have shown that children vary in the rate (i.e., density) at which they produce nonmainstream grammatical structures (Craig, Zhang, Hensel, & Quinn, 2009;HortonIkard et al, 2005;Jackson & Roberts, 2001;Kohler et al, 2007;Oetting, 2005;Oetting et al, 2010;Pruitt & Oetting, 2009;Terry, Connor, Thomas-Tate, & Love, 2010;Van Hofwegen & Wolfram, 2010). However, the relationship between children's nonmainstream dialect densities and their use of individual grammatical structures is unclear.…”

“…For example, for 37 children between the ages of 3 and 4 in the SALT 2012 reference database (Miller & Iglesias, 2012), the average MLU was 3.61 (SD = .55; range = 2.62-4.65). In a study of African American children, Jackson and Roberts (2001) reported the mean MLU of 3-year-olds to be 3.62 (SD = .56).…”

“…At least 20 child AAE studies have included auxiliaries within the analyses (Burns, Paulk, Seymour, & Pearson, 2000;Cleveland & Oetting, 2013;Fasold et al, 1987;Green, 2011;Green, Wyatt, & Lopez, 2007;Horton-Ikard, 2002;Horton-Ikard, Ellis Weismer, & Edwards, 2005;Jackson & Roberts, 2001;Oetting & Garrity, 2006;Oetting & McDonald, 2001;Oetting & Pruitt, 2005;Roy, Oetting, & Moland, 2013;Seymour, Bland-Stewart, & Green, 1998;Thompson, Craig, & Washington, 2004;Van Hofwegen & Wolfram, 2010;Washington & Craig, 1994, 2002Washington, Craig, & Kushmaul, 1998). As mentioned earlier, most of these studies have focused on isolated aspects of the AAE grammar, such as those that show differences (or a contrast) between AAE and MAE.…”

Extensão média do enunciado-palavras em crianças de 4 e 5 anos com desenvolvimento típico da linguagem

“…Gender-dependent differences seem to exist only in younger children, up to 3 or 4 years old. Girls present higher MLU-w than boys and they also produce more complex syntactic forms 23,25 . Therefore it is possible to claim that at around age 4 syntactic development has already acquired a certain stability, thus evening out the gender differences that may exist until that age.…”

“…At schooling age girls also seem to be more successful in all verbal competences than boys 21 . Regarding MLU, no gender differences are usually observed 22 , although there are some different results, indicating a better performance of girls, though only until the age of 3 or 4 [23][24][25] .…”