Language and Literacy Predictors of Dialect Density among School-Age African American Children from Two Geographic Regions

• Published in: Language, speech & hearing services in schools Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 807 - 820
• Main Authors: Caesar, Lena G, Kerins, Marie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 01.07.2020
• Subjects: African American Children; African American Students; African Americans; African Americans - psychology; Age Differences; Analysis; Charities; Child; Child care; Child Language; Children; Children & youth; Childrens picture books; Data collection; Dialects; Educational Environment; Emergent Literacy; Female; Fluency; Geographic Regions; Grade 2; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6; Humans; Language; Language Acquisition; Language Skills; Language Tests; Learning; Literacy; Literacy - ethnology; Literacy - psychology; Longitudinal Studies; Low income groups; Male; Mean length of utterance; Minority & ethnic groups; Morphemes; Multiple Regression Analysis; Oral Language; Oral Reading; Phonological Awareness; Phonology; Predictor Variables; Preschool Children; Preschool education; Reading; Reading Achievement; Reading Comprehension; Reading Fluency; Reading Tests; Regional dialects; Regression Analysis; School districts; Sentences; Spoken language; Standardized Tests; Statistical analysis; Students; United Kingdom; United States; United States; United Kingdom; United States > US
• ISSN: 0161-1461; 1558-9129
• DOI: 10.1044/2020_LSHSS-19-00063

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between oral language, literacy skills, age, and dialect density (DD) of African American children residing in two different geographical regions of the United States (East Coast and Midwest). Method: Data were obtained from 64 African American school-age children between the ages of 7 and 12 years from two geographic regions. Children were assessed using a combination of standardized tests and narrative samples elicited from wordless picture books. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine relationships to and relative contributions of oral language, literacy, age, and geographic region to DD. Results: Results of correlation analyses demonstrated a negative relationship between DD measures and children's literacy skills. Age-related findings between geographic regions indicated that the younger sample from the Midwest outscored the East Coast sample in reading comprehension and sentence complexity. Multiple regression analyses identified five variables (i.e., geographic region, age, mean length of utterance in morphemes, reading fluency, and phonological awareness) that accounted for 31% of the variance of children's DD--with geographic region emerging as the strongest predictor. Conclusions: As in previous studies, the current study found an inverse relationship between DD and several literacy measures. Importantly, geographic region emerged as a strong predictor of DD. This finding highlights the need for a further study that goes beyond the mere description of relationships to comparing geographic regions and specifically focusing on racial composition, poverty, and school success measures through direct data collection.