Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Differentiating dialect from disorder: a comparison of two processing tasks and a standardized language test.

R K Rodekohr1, W O Haynes

  • 1Department of Communication Disorders, Auburn University, AL 36849, USA.

Journal of Communication Disorders
|June 21, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Processing tasks may offer a less biased approach to language assessment for African American English (AAE) speakers. Standardized tests may disadvantage AAE speakers, while processing tasks show comparable performance to White peers.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Topic manipulation and cohesive adequacy in conversations of normal adults between the ages of 30 and 90.

Clinical linguistics & phonetics·2010
Same author

Joint book-reading strategies in working-class African American and white mother-toddler dyads.

Journal of speech and hearing research·1994
Same author

Alpha hemispheric asymmetry in children with learning disabilities and normally achieving children during story comprehension and rehearsal prior to narrative production.

Journal of learning disabilities·1989
Same author

Topic manipulation and conversational participation as a function of familiarity in school-age language-impaired and normal language peers.

Journal of communication disorders·1988
Same author

Discourse errors in students with learning disabilities and their normally achieving peers: molar versus molecular views.

Journal of learning disabilities·1988
Same author

Effect of voice quality on adult's perceptions of Down's syndrome children.

Folia phoniatrica·1988

Area of Science:

  • Speech and Language Pathology
  • Linguistic Bias in Assessment
  • Child Language Development

Background:

  • Norm-referenced language assessments can exhibit bias against speakers of non-mainstream dialects.
  • Processing tasks, which evaluate language manipulation rather than prior knowledge, are being explored to mitigate this bias.
  • Understanding dialectal differences is crucial for accurate language assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the utility of processing tasks in culturally unbiased language assessment.
  • To compare the performance of African American English (AAE) speakers and White speakers on standardized tests and processing tasks.
  • To determine if processing tasks can reduce bias in identifying language impairments in AAE speakers.

Main Methods:

Related Experiment Videos

  • The study included 40 children aged 7;0-7;3, divided into four groups: White normal language, White language impaired, African American normal language, and African American language impaired.
  • Participants completed the Test of Language Development-2P (TOLD-2P), the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT), and the Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT).
  • Statistical analyses were used to compare performance across groups and measures.

    • Main Results:

    • All three measures successfully differentiated between normal-language and language-impaired subjects.
    • Normal-language AAE speakers scored significantly lower on the TOLD-2P than normal-language White speakers.
    • Normal-language AAE speakers performed similarly to normal-language White speakers on the NRT and CLPT.

    Conclusions:

    • Standardized language tests assessing prior knowledge may disadvantage AAE speakers with normally developing language.
    • Processing tasks (NRT and CLPT) show potential as less biased measures for assessing language skills in AAE speakers.
    • Combining processing tasks with traditional assessments may lead to more equitable clinical decisions for diverse language users.