Evaluating the Grammars of Children Who Speak Nonmainstream Dialects of English

Abstract

In this article, we review three responses to the study and evaluation of grammar in children who speak nonmainstream dialects of English. Then we introduce a fourth, system-based response that views nonmainstream dialects of English, such as African American English (AAE) and Southern White English (SWE) as made up of dialect-specific and dialect-universal features. To illustrate the usefulness of a system-based approach and to distinguish our two terms from others in the dialect literature, we present AAE and SWE relative clause data from two previously published studies. Following this, we present new findings from AAE- and SWE-speaking children’s use of past tense and past participles to further demonstrate the value of examining larger units (i.e., systems) of a grammar to identify a child’s language strengths and weaknesses. We conclude by arguing that a system-based approach moves clinicians, educators, and researchers beyond a preoccupation with the nonmainstream aspects of children’s dialects while also moving us beyond Brown’s 14 morphemes. Although the focus of the article is on assessment, the content is relevant to the treatment of grammar because effective promotion of any child’s grammar (including the grammars of those who speak nonmainstream dialects of English) will occur only when clinicians, educators, and researchers begin to view the child’s grammar as a system rather than as a sum of its parts.

Language Assessment With Children Who Speak Nonmainstream Dialects: Examining the Effects of Scoring Modifications in Norm-Referenced Assessment

“…I dentifying language impairment (LI) in children who speak nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialects is difficult (Oetting, Lee, & Porter, 2013;Seymour, 2004;Seymour, Bland-Stewart, & Green, 1998). Clinical diagnostic decisions are complicated by a number of factors, including persistent bias in standardized language assessments (Qi, Kaiser, Milan, & Hancock, 2006;Stockman, 2000Stockman, , 2010 Thomas-Tate, Washington, & Edwards, 2004;Washington & Craig, 1999;Wyatt, 2012) and the fact that many of the features that have been demonstrated to be clinical markers of language impairment in speakers of mainstream American English (MAE) may be produced variably in NMAE (Lee & Oetting, 2014;Oetting & Horohov, 1997;Oetting & McDonald, 2001).…”

“…Several approaches have been proposed for developing dialect-neutral assessments to identify children with LI. For example, researchers have examined the use of processing-based measures, such as nonword repetition (e.g., Campbell, Dollaghan, Needleman, & Janosky, 1997;Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998; but see Moyle, Heilmann, & Finneran, 2014;Oetting, et al, 2013;Oetting & Cleveland, 2006) and dynamic assessment methods (e.g., Peña et al, 2016). These methods place the focus of assessment on the child's perceived potential for acquiring language versus the current level of achievement.…”

Unbiased Language Assessment: Contributions of Linguistic Theory

“…Now, 10 years later, DELV is only slowly gaining acceptance as a fair assessment for children with nonmainstream dialects as well as MAE speakers (Oetting et al 2016). New studies of AAE-speaking children are endeavoring to probe more deeply into how a disorder manifests within AAE grammar-that is, how language delay affects the grammar itself, as opposed to the noncontrastive properties on which the DELV focuses (Green & Roeper 2007, Stockman 2010, Oetting et al 2013, Pearson et al 2013.…”

From the Editor

“…For one thing, that is how typical children acquire complex forms (Barako Arndt & Schuele, 2013), and for another, such an approach avoids conflicts in how "correctness" might be defined differently for children who use nonmainstream dialects (Oetting et al, 2013). Another message of this issue is not surprising.…”