Measuring Language Competence in AA Children who are High Dialect Speakers

项目摘要 研究发现，非洲裔美国人英语（AAE）的存在是一个复杂的因素， 评估非洲裔美国人（AA）儿童的语言技能。AAE是美国的一种主要方言 英语（AE），约占美国人口的12%。在临床背景下，AAE与 记录语言障碍的语言特征，区分语言障碍 语言差异很难。在学术背景下，不匹配假设假定， 口语和文本之间的差异会使说AAE的孩子面临阅读失败的风险。最近的研究 这表明，并不是仅仅存在AAE导致不良结局。相反， 高水平的AAE才是最重要的AAE的使用发生在从低到高方言使用的连续体上。 从方言、语言、阅读和写作的研究中得出的证据表明， 作为那些AAE发言人谁是在失败的风险或表现不佳的一系列语言为基础的 工具和任务;低到中度方言使用者，另一方面，没有证据表明这种相同的风险。因此，在本发明中， 它似乎是口语标准与AAE方言所使用的语言之间的语言距离 这些用户对这些高难度的贡献率。我们认为，这一距离对 特别是评估导致了对AA儿童语言能力的低估， 特别是那些在贫困中长大的人，他们最有可能是AAE的密集用户。因此，至关重要的是， 在评估AAE的高密度说话者时，区分语言能力和语言表现。 因此，本研究的具体目标是：目标1：探索语言能力的测量方法 利用传统的心理语言学方法，（即，句子重复、语法判断和句子 在450名非洲裔美国儿童的样本中，从3年级到5年级，他们说AAE。目标2： 制定一个评分规则，支持主流美国英语（MAE）和AAE的反应， 对于表征典型的发展中的密集型AAE儿童的语言知识是有用的， 扬声器.我们将对分类项目使用验证性因素分析（即，项目反应理论），以测试 实验尺度以及测试预期的理论结构对其他分数， 建立了收敛和判别效度的衡量标准。

PROJECT SUMMARY Research has identified the presence of African American English (AAE) as a complicating factor for assessment of the language skills of African American (AA) children. AAE is a major dialect of American English (AE), spoken by approximately 12% of the U.S. population. In clinical contexts, AAE overlaps with the linguistic characteristics documented for language impairments, making differentiation of language disorders and language differences difficult. In academic contexts, the mismatch hypothesis posits that the poor match between spoken language and text puts AAE-speaking children at risk for reading failure. Recent research has demonstrated that it is not the mere presence of AAE that leads to poor outcomes. Instead, it is the occurrence of high amounts of AAE that matters most. AAE use occurs on a continuum from low to high dialect use. Converging evidence from studies of dialect, language, reading and writing, have identified high dialect users as those AAE speakers who are at risk for failure or poor performances on a range of language-based instruments and tasks; low to moderate dialect users, on the other hand, do not evidence this same risk. Thus, it appears that it is the linguistic distance between the spoken standard and the language used by AAE dialect users that contributes to these high rates of difficulty. We propose that the impact of this distance on assessment in particular has resulted in underestimation of the linguistic competence of AA children, particularly those growing up in poverty, who are most likely to be dense users of AAE. It is therefore crucial to distinguish linguistic competence from linguistic performance when assessing high-density speakers of AAE. Accordingly, the Specific Aims of this project are: Aim 1: To explore measurement of language competence utilizing traditional psycholinguistic methods, (i.e., sentence repetition, grammatical judgment, and sentence building) within a sample of 450 African American children in 3rd through 5th grades who speak AAE. Aim 2: To develop a scoring rubric that supports both Mainstream American English (MAE) and AAE responding and that is useful for characterizing the language knowledge of children who are typically developing, dense AAE speakers. We will use confirmatory factor analysis for categorical items (i.e., item response theory) to test the experimental scales as well as to test the expected theoretical structure against the scores on other, established measures for convergent and discriminant validity.