Teaching Elementary Students Who Speak Black English Vernacular to Write in Standard English: Effects of Dialect...

Although nonstandard dialects of English are legitimate forms of spoken language used by many Americans, students in U.S. schools must acquire writing competence using Standard English (SE). Participants in this study were 3rd- and 4th-grade African-American students who exhibited Black English Vernacular (BEV) features in their written work. Six syntactic features differing in BEV and SE were targeted. Students received one of three treatments to increase their use of the SE features in their writing: (1) exposure to SE features in stories; (2) story exposure plus explanation of SE rules; and (3) story exposure, SE rule instruction, and guided practice transforming sentences from BEV to SE features. The third treatment proved most effective in enabling students to translate BEV sentences into SE forms and to employ the targeted SE features in their free writing. Results indicate that having students practice translating nonstandard sentences that typify their own writing and providing corrective feedback are effective for teaching them to use SE forms in their writing. Findings are interpreted to support a social-cognitive view of self-regulated learning. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.