A Comparison of Black Dialect-Speaking Children and Standard English-Speaking Children and Their Ability to Hear Final Consonant Stops

Abstract

This study compared Black children who speak Black dialect and middleclass white children in grades 3, 4, 5, and 6 on their ability to hear final consonant stops. Specifically, the study determined if there was a significant difference between the two populations in discriminating between words which either ended in a voiced or voiceless final stop which was preceded by another voiced or voiceless consonant and a paired word which did not end in the consonant stop (i.e. test-mass; told-toll). An auditory discrimination test was designed to contain pairs of words conforming to the phonological description above. The test was tape recorded and administered to groups by grade level. Children heard pairs of words, and they indicated whether they ended the same or differently. Significant differences at .01 level of significance were found at all grade levels between the two populations. In the Black population, there was a remarkable difference between children in grade 3, and grades 4, 5, and 6 in hearing the ending consonant stops. There was little difference between Black children in grades 4, 5, and 6. Black children in all grades, however, were significantly less able to hear the ending consonant stops than the white children. There was little difference between white children at all grade levels. Since many words contain final consonant stops in the environments tested in this study, the implication of the findings is that for Black children who speak Black dialect, special help must be given in the reading program, specifically the phonics aspect of the reading program. In addition, the findings indicate that Black children, because of Black dialect phonology, have many more homophones in their speech and this may interfere with reading comprehension; it most certainly causes them to be confused during reading instruction.