Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Educational Psychology
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• Understanding the relationship between dialectal variations and academic achievement is crucial.
• African American English (AAE) presents unique linguistic features that require careful consideration in educational assessments.
• Previous research has explored dialectal influences on literacy, but predictive models need further refinement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the predictive power of African American English (AAE)-specific morphosyntactic variations in written narratives on reading achievement.
• To determine if AAE-specific forms predict standardized literacy and reading vocabulary scores in African American students.
• To compare the predictive value of AAE-specific forms against dialect-neutral variations.

Main Methods:

• Elicited written narrative language samples from 207 African American students (Grades 1-8).
• Analyzed samples for morphosyntactic variations, categorizing them as AAE-specific or dialect-neutral.
• Employed structural equation modeling to assess predictive relationships, controlling for income, age, and sample length.

Main Results:

• Written samples showed significant morphosyntactic variability.
• Younger students and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds used AAE-specific forms more frequently.
• The density of AAE-specific forms did not significantly predict standardized literacy or reading vocabulary scores.

Conclusions:

• Dialect-specific language features in writing may not directly predict standardized reading achievement.
• Focusing on dialect-neutral morphosyntactic forms could enhance the validity of assessments for students with diverse linguistic backgrounds.
• Further research is needed to understand the language, literacy, and academic development of all students.