Relation of dialect to phonological processing: African American Vernacular English vs. Standard American English

Abstract

Standard American English (SAE) and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) dialects differ in emphasis and use of word-final consonant sounds, with some consonants and clusters that are fully pronounced in SAE reduced or absent in AAVE. In two studies, SAE and AAVE speakers (age 7–11) completed phoneme deletion tasks in which the position of the deleted phoneme was varied. In general, SAE speakers performed better on word-final deletions than on word-initial deletions, whereas AAVE speakers performed better on word-initial deletions than on word-final deletions. Also, phoneme deletion performance tended to correlate more strongly with reading ability among SAE speakers than among AAVE speakers. Implications for phonological reading instruction and for the use of phonological screeners to identify at-risk readers are discussed.