Language development in African American English child speech

Abstract

Much of the current understanding about African American English (AAE) has come from the 1960s and 1970s research of sociolinguists such as Labov (1969, 1972a, 1972b) and Wolfram (1969). The majority of those studies, however, focused on the language behavior of adolescent and adult AAE speakers with little attention to that of younger speakers. The use of these adolescent/adult-based norms has obvious implications for educators and speech-language clinicians involved with the language instruction, assessment, and intervention of young AAE child speakers. Specifically, these norms can lead to inappropriate language expectations for children in public school settings. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of current research on grammatical, phonological, semantic, and pragmatic development in AAE child speech and to discuss the implications of these findings for professionals involved with second-dialect instruction, speech-language assessment and/or intervention programs. Methodological issues associated with the investigation of African American child language concerns are also addressed.