American English Dialects Research Articles

African American Preschoolers' Performance on Norm-Referenced Language Assessments: Examining the Effect of Dialect Density and the Use of Scoring Modifications.

We investigated and compared the outcomes from two standardized, norm-referenced screening assessments of language (i.e., Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals Preschool-Second Edition [CELFP-2], Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test [DELV-ST]) with African American preschoolers whose spoken dialect differed from that of General American English (GAE). We (a) described preschoolers' performance on the CELFP-2 Core Language Index (CLI) and its subtests with consideration of degree of dialect variation (DVAR) observed, (b) investigated how the application of dialect-sensitive scoring modifications to the expressive morphology and syntax Word Structure (WS) subtest affected CELFP-2 CLI scores, and (c) evaluated the screening classification agreement rates between the DELV-ST and the CELFP-2 CLI. African American preschoolers (N = 284) completed the CELFP-2 CLI subtests (i.e., Sentence Structure, WS, Expressive Vocabulary) and the DELV-ST. Density of spoken dialect use was estimated with the DELV-ST Part I Language Variation Status, and percentage of DVAR was calculated. The CELFP-2 WS subtest was scored with and without dialect-sensitive scoring modifications. Planned comparisons of CELFP-2 CLI performance indicated statistically significant differences in performance based on DELV-ST-determined degree of language variation groupings. Scoring modifications applied to the WS subtest increased subtest scaled scores and CLI composite standard scores. However, preschoolers who demonstrated strong variation from GAE continued to demonstrate significantly lower performance than preschoolers who demonstrated little to no language variation. Affected-status agreement rates between assessments (modified and unmodified CELFP-2 CLI scores and DELV-ST Part II Diagnostic Risk Status) were extremely low. The application of dialect-specific scoring modifications to standardized, norm-referenced assessments of language must be simultaneously viewed through the lenses of equity, practicality, and psychometry. The results of our multistage study reiterate the need for reliable methods of identifying risk for developmental language disorder within children who speak American English dialects other than GAE. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26017978.

Perceptual adaptation to unfamiliar dialects in an eye-tracking task

Variation in pronunciation of vowels across American English dialects often creates the strongest distinctions between dialects and leads to lexical ambiguity between minimal pairs within dialects. This lexical ambiguity is stronger for listeners with lifetime exposure to multiple dialects than to a single dialect. In the current study, we investigated the influence of brief, in- lab dialect exposure on lexical competition and perceptual adaptation. Midwestern American English participants were first presented with a familiarization short story told in one of two unfamiliar dialects (Southern American English or a novel accent) and then completed a visual-world eye-tracking task containing both acoustically ambiguous and non-ambiguous words from each dialect in a forced-choice task. The results showed evidence of greater lexical competition for target dialect minimal pairs following familiarization. This pattern of results is consistent with previous work suggesting greater lexical competition following lifetime exposure to dialect variation among geographically mobile listeners, suggesting similarities in the effects of brief in-lab and lifetime exposure to dialect variation on lexical competition and processing.

Unflappable? Buckeyes say “whatever” to English flapping rules

American English dialects generally use a 'flap/tap' consonant in some places where /t/ or /d/ is both indicated in the spelling and used in some other dialects. What environments allow a flap to occur instead of /t/ or /d/? This question has inspired considerable debate in the literature, but a consensus has settled on a lack of stress on the syllable following as being the most critical factor in the occurrence of a flap word-internally. This study investigates the occurrence of flaps in the Buckeye Corpus of American English (40 speakers from Columbus, OH), detailing the frequency of flapping in various phonetic environments. One significant finding is that all speakers produced some flaps word-internally before syllables bearing primary or secondary stress (as in “whatever”).

Dialect identification, intelligibility ratings, and acceptability ratings of dysarthric speech in two American English dialects

ABSTRACT The current study explored the intelligibility and acceptability ratings of dysarthric speakers with African American English (AAE) and General American English (GAE) dialects by listeners who identify as GAE or AAE speakers, as well as listener ability to identify dialect in dysarthric speech. Eighty-six listeners rated the intelligibility and acceptability of sentences extracted from a passage read by speakers with dysarthria. Samples were used from the Atlanta Motor Speech Disorders Corpus and ratings were collected via self-report. The listeners identified speaker dialect in a forced-choice format. Listeners self-reported their dialect and exposure to AAE. AAE dialect was accurately identified in 63.43% of the the opportunities; GAE dialect was accurately identified in 70.35% of the opportunities. Listeners identifying as AAE speakers rated GAE speech as more acceptable, whereas, listeners identifying as GAE speakers rated AAE speech as more acceptable. Neither group of listeners demonstrated a difference in intelligibility ratings. Exposure to AAE had no effect on intelligibility or acceptability ratings. Listeners can identify dialect (AAE and GAE) with a better than chance degree of accuracy. One’s dialect may have an effect on intelligibility and acceptability ratings. Exposure to a dialect did not affect listener ratings of intelligibility or acceptability.

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ЛІНГВІСТИЧНИХ КОРПУСІВ У ВИВЧЕННІ СЛОВОБУДОВИ ДІАЛЕКТІВ АМЕРИКАНСЬКОГО ВАРІАНТУ СУЧАСНОЇ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ

The article deals with the principles of using the concepts of corpus linguistics in studying American English dialects. The origins of corpus linguistics of American English dialects are considered, and developments in corpus linguistics by W. Francis and G. Kuchera are investigated (Brown Corpus, 1964). The concept of «corpus linguistics» is defined, and some problematic aspects are described. The qualifications for using the corpus-linguistic approach in the study of dialect grammatical features of American English are defined. The grammatical differences between British and American English are outlined. "Spoken English" is defined as how the latter was dialectical in the United States. The American dialects and Standardized American English are distinguished. Attention is focused on comparative and legal developments in corpus linguistics of British and American English (Brown and Lancaster Corps). Discographic studies of spoken American (dialectical) are mentioned: Lancaster/IBM SEC and Corpus of Spoken American English. The peculiarities of using the International Corpus of English, which studies British and American English in philological and methodological unity, are outlined. The processes of expanding the language corpus of the American English language from 1990 till the present (through the prism of statistics from The Bank of English) are determined. The main methodological developments in the systematization of the corpus of American English from the point of view of the theory of Corpus Linguistics are indicated: software corpus; problem-parametric industry selections; text transcription; search and system work; description encoding of "preserved" dialect words and word formations.

Effects of dialect familiarity on word identification in a visual-world eye-tracking task

The acoustic closeness of vowels across American English dialects results in cross-dialect lexical competition among minimal pair words. In the current study, we investigated how listener familiarity with specific dialects affects performance in a cross-dialect visual-world eye-tracking task. Listeners heard both acoustically close and control minimal pairs in each of three regional American English dialects (New England, Southern, and Northern) in a four-alternative forced-choice identification task. Listener dialect familiarity was assessed for each dialect based on each individual’s self-reported residential history for themselves, their parents, and their significant others. Preliminary analyses revealed more accurate and faster responses to New England talkers as familiarity with the New England dialect increased, consistent with talker and accent familiarity effects in the literature. However, responses to Southern talkers were slower as familiarity with the Southern dialect increased, contrary to the typical pattern. Responses to Northern talkers were not affected by familiarity with the Northern dialect, consistent with the lack of enregisterment of this variety. Together, these findings suggest that listener dialect familiarity has different effects on the resolution of cross-dialect lexical competition, reflecting both the nature of the variation and the social stereotypes associated with the dialect. Analysis of the eye-tracking data is ongoing.

Kids talk too: Linguistic justice and child African American English

African American English (AAE) is a language form used primarily, though not exclusively by Black Americans of historical African descent. The language is rule governed, robust, and resistant to assimilation to the white American English (WAE) dialects that surround it. Although public schools in the United States have been putatively integrated since 1954, the 2020 census data reveals most children continue to live in segregated communities. White children live in communities that are on average 69% white and Black children in communities that are on average 55% Black. As children acquire the language forms of their community peers, we should expect most Black children will enter school using some AAE. Speech and language scientists can participate in linguistic justice by teaching the systematic nature of AAE speech most likely to perturb listeners and lead to misidentification of AAE speech variation as disorder. We will focus on weak syllable deletion and final consonant variation. We will show how to use AAE audio recordings and simple spectral analysis to decrease misinterpretation of typical AAE child speech as speech errors.

Addressing the Needs of Nonmainstream Dialect Speakers With Learning Disabilities

Children who speak with nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialects represent a growing population in the U.S. public school system. This article provides recommendations for how teacher educators can support novice teachers in addressing the needs of NMAE speakers with or at risk for learning disabilities. This article focuses on four core recommendations that teacher educators and other practitioners can learn from and apply in teacher preparation coursework to support the learning outcomes and needs of NMAE dialect speakers. These are (a) basic instruction on and descriptions of language variation in reading methods courses, (b) addressing language variation within the core areas of language development, (c) guidance for novice teachers to critically examine reading and literacy theories to plan instruction, and (d) collaboration across disciplines to encourage interdisciplinary partnerships with other school personnel.

Dialect density, language abilities and emergent literacy skills of prekindergarten children who speak African American English

BackgroundNumerous studies have observed a significant and unique relationship between children's use of nonmainstream dialect and reading outcomes. We aimed to examine the relationship between nonmainstream dialect and reading at its roots by completing a preliminary evaluation of the relationship between African American English (AAE) dialect and multiple dimensions of emergent literacy skills in young African American children enrolled in Head Start.MethodsSeventy‐eight African American preschoolers completed the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening‐PreK (PALS‐PreK) and a narrative retell of the wordless picture book, Frog, Where Are You? The narratives were used to generate three measures of narrative productivity and the dialect density measure (DDM).ResultsStructural equation modelling found that the PALS‐PreK measures significantly loaded onto a single print‐related emergent literacy latent variable and that the three narrative measures significantly loaded onto a single language‐based emergent literacy latent variable. There was a significant relationship between print‐related emergent literacy skills and DDM, but the overall model had a poor fit, showing that the relationship between emergent literacy and DDM was weak.ConclusionsWe conclude the manuscript by discussing implications of this research and suggestions for further study.

Talker adjustment to perceived communication errors

During conversation, talkers may adapt their speech in a variety of ways. One form of adaptation is clear speech, in which a talker hyperarticulates when faced with specific communication challenges. In this study, we investigated how phonetic adaptation is affected by the nature of apparent miscommunication. To do so, we utilized a common feature of American English dialects, in which intervocalic /t/ is realized as a voiced flap rather than an unvoiced, fully articulated stop before unstressed syllables, causing words like petal and pedal to sound similar. Flapped /t/ may become more distinct compared to /d/ during clear speech. Using a faux-computer training paradigm, we provided artificial feedback on subjects’ speech. When subjects said a word (e.g., petal) the computer would either interpret the word correctly (i.e., it guesses petal) or incorrectly (it guesses pedal, kettle or ???). We measured talkers’ produced word length, initial-syllable vowel length, and medial consonant stop closure or flap consonant duration in both their first and second utterances of each trial. We found that participants produced longer words, vowels, and stop closure durations in response to feedback that contained an error compared to correct feedback. Participants also changed their flapped productions to stops most often and lengthened their stop closures to a greater degree following voicing errors compared to the other error conditions. Our findings indicate that interlocutors’ productions may change along different acoustic dimensions depending on the kind of miscommunication they experience. Broadly, our findings indicate a need to consider how phonetic adaptation in the form of clear speech is affected by the nature of miscommunication during conversational interaction.

Phonetic convergence in temporal organization during shadowed speech

The goal of this study was to examine phonetic convergence in various measures of temporal organization during shadowed speech across different American English dialects. Participants from the Northern and Midland American English dialect regions, as well as “Mobile” participants who had lived in multiple region, read 72 sentences to establish a baseline for temporal organization, and then repeated the same 72 sentences after Northern, Midland, and Southern model talkers. Measures of temporal organization (i.e., %V, ΔC, ΔV, rPVI-C, and nPVI-V) were calculated for the read sentences, shadowed sentences, and model talker sentences. Statistical analysis of the differences in distance between the model talker sentences and the shadowers’ read and shadowed sentences, respectively, revealed significant convergence by all three shadowing groups toward the model dialects for ΔV, and significant divergence by Mobile talkers away from the model talkers for nPVI-V. Though the result of divergence by Mobile talkers was unexpected, both results provide evidence that support previous studies, which claim that social perception is a large contributing factor in convergence and divergence. These results are also consistent with previous findings demonstrating variation across dialects in temporal organization and in addition, provide evidence for variation across dialects in convergence in temporal organization.

Nasalance Scores for Normal Speakers of American English Obtained by the Nasometer II Using the MacKay-Kummer SNAP-R Test.

To establish nasalance score norms for adolescent and young adult native speakers of American English and also determine age-group and gender differences using the Simplified Nasometric Assessment Procedures (SNAP) Test-R and Nasometer II. Prospective study using a randomly selected sample of participants. Greater Cincinnati area and Miami University of Ohio. Participants had a history of normal speech and language development and no history of speech therapy. Participants in the adolescent group were recruited from schools in West Clermont and Hamilton County, whereas the young adults were recruited from Miami University of Ohio. The participants of both groups were residents of Cincinnati, Ohio or Oxford, Ohio and spoke midland American English dialect. Mean nasalance scores for the SNAP Test-R. Normative nasalance scores were obtained for the Syllable Repetition/Prolonged Sounds, Picture-Cued, and Paragraph subtests. Results showed statistically significant nasalance score differences between adolescents and young adults in the Syllable Repetition, Picture-Cued, and Paragraph subtests, and between males and females in the Syllable Repetition and the Sound-Prolonged subtests. A significant univariate effect was found for the syllables and sentences containing nasal consonants and high vowels compared to syllables and sentences containing oral consonants and low vowels. Across all the SNAP Test-R subtests, the females' nasalance scores were higher than the males. A significant univariate effect was also found across nasal syllables, and high vowels such that the females' nasalance scores were higher than the males. Tables of normative data are provided that may be useful for clinical purposes. Norms obtained demonstrated nasalance score differences according to age and gender, particularly in the Syllable Repetition/Prolonged Sound subtest. These differences were discussed in light of potential reasons for their existence and implications for understanding velopharyngeal function. In addition, nasalance scores are affected by the vowel type and place of articulation of the consonant. These facts should be considered when nasometry is used clinically and for research purposes.

Teacher Report of Students' Dialect Use and Language Ability.

Purpose For many school-age children, teachers are the first professionals to refer for speech/language services. However, many speech-language pathologists note that students without language disorders who speak non-mainstream American English (NMAE) dialects are referred to speech/language evaluation. This research note presents results of a preliminary study exploring teachers' ability to report student dialect use and how teacher reports of language ability depend on their perception of the student's dialect use. Method Teachers completed a brief two-question survey about students' dialect use and a standardized questionnaire about students' language and literacy skills for 254 students (K‑second grades). A subset of 30 students completed a standardized screener of dialect use and language ability. Results Teachers reported that 12.2% of students spoke an NMAE dialect, whereas 77.2% did not. In sharp contrast, the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test indicated that 63% of students spoke an NMAE dialect, and 37% spoke MAE, suggesting a discrepancy between teachers' perceptions of dialect use and children's dialect use. Written responses suggested teachers may confuse NMAE dialect use and bilingualism or speech/language difficulties. Interestingly, teachers reported lower language skills among students they believe speak an NMAE dialect (p = .021). Conclusions These results provide preliminary evidence that teachers may have difficulty determining student dialect use and may report lower language skills for students they believe speak an NMAE dialect. Interprofessional collaborations between teachers and speech-language pathologists may be able to reduce the likelihood of misdiagnosis of language disorders among students who speak NMAE dialects.

Effect of Competition, Signal-to-Noise Ratio, Race, and Sex on Southern American English Dialect Talkers' Sentence Recognition.

Although numerous studies have examined regional and racial-ethnic labeling of talker identity, few have evaluated speech perception skills of listeners from the southern United States. The objective of the study was to examine the effect of competition, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), race, and sex on sentence recognition performance in talkers from the Southern American English dialect region. A four-factor mixed-measures design was used. Forty-eight normal-hearing young African American and White adults participated. The Perceptually Robust English Sentence Test Open-set was used in quiet and in continuous and interrupted noise and multitalker babble at SNRs of -10, -5, 0, and 5 dB. Significant main effects of competition (p < 0.001) and SNR (p < 0.001) and a competition by SNR interaction were found (p < 0.001). Performance improved with increasing SNRs. Performance was also greater in the interrupted broadband noise at poorer SNRs, relative to the other competitors. Multitalker babble performance was significantly poorer than the continuous noise at the poorer SNRs. There was no effect of race or sex on performance in quiet or competition. Although African American English and White American English talkers living in the same geographic region demonstrate differences in speech production, their speech perception in noise does not appear to differ under the conditions examined in this study.

Production of Morphosyntax Within and Across Different Dialects of American English.

Purpose This study examined the production of morphosyntactic markers by school-age children with and without developmental language disorder. Comparisons were made between students who speak mainstream American English (MAE) dialects and nonmainstream American English (NMAE) dialects. Method First- and second-grade students (N = 82) completed assessments of dialect use and language ability, which are designed for students who speak NMAE dialects. Students also completed an experimental production task targeting three morphosyntactic features: past tense -ed marking, third-person singular -s marking, and plural -s marking. Past tense marking and third-person singular are produced differently across MAE and NMAE dialects, whereas plural marking is produced more similarly across dialects. Results When comparing across dialects, children with typical language skills who spoke NMAE dialects overtly marked past tense and third-person singular less often compared to MAE peers. However, when comparing to same-dialect peers with language disorders, children with typical language skills who spoke NMAE dialects overtly marked these morphosyntactic markers more often than peers with developmental language disorder. Conclusion The results underscore the importance of considering a child's dialect use when assessing language ability, in particular with measures that include features that are variable in NMAE dialects. At the same time, within-dialect comparisons suggest that a broader set of morphosyntactic features may provide useful information for evaluations of language ability. Future research should investigate the source of these differences, including the extent to which students with language disorders have acquired the social and linguistic factors that condition the use of variable features.

Effect of Competition, Signal-to-Noise Ratio, Race, and Sex on Southern American English Dialect Talkers’ Sentence Recognition

Background: Although numerous studies have examined regional and racial–ethnic labeling of talkeridentity, few have evaluated speech perception skills of listeners from the southern United States.Purpose: The objective of the study was to examine the effect of competition, signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), race, and sex on sentence recognition performance in talkers from the Southern American Englishdialect region.Research Design: A four-factor mixed-measures design was used.Study Sample: Forty-eight normal-hearing young African American and White adults participated.Data Collection and Analyses: The Perceptually Robust English Sentence Test Open-set was used inquiet and in continuous and interrupted noise and multitalker babble at SNRs of -10, -5, 0, and 5 dB.Results: Significant main effects of competition (p &lt; 0.001) and SNR (p &lt; 0.001) and a competition bySNR interaction were found (p &lt; 0.001). Performance improved with increasing SNRs. Performance wasalso greater in the interrupted broadband noise at poorer SNRs, relative to the other competitors. Multitalkerbabble performance was significantly poorer than the continuous noise at the poorer SNRs. Therewas no effect of race or sex on performance in quiet or competition.Conclusions: Although African American English and White American English talkers living in the samegeographic region demonstrate differences in speech production, their speech perception in noise doesnot appear to differ under the conditions examined in this study.

A LITERATURA ENGAJADA EM BELOVED, DE TONI MORRISON

Este trabalho tem como objetivo demonstrar a importância da matéria lingüística na literatura demonstrando resistência em comparação ao nominado inglês padrão. No primeiro momento, são usadas relações específicas do uso do inglês vernáculo negro em detalhes para indicar a resistência da temática na escrita de Morrison em comparação com o padrão inglês padrão. O corpus escolhido para este artigo é Beloved, de Toni Morrison, onde o uso do dialeto inglês vernáculo afro-americano estudado por Labov entre outros estudiosos se faz presente. A autora circunscreve sua escrita no movimento pelos direitos civis recomendado por Martin Luther King. Tais características linguísticas que permeiam a escrita de Morrison são peculiares a um seleto grupo de falantes perpetuado pela segregação estabelecida pela maioria branca e por estar presente na materialidade literária, demonstra sua natureza cronológica e sociológica de resistência. No primeiro momento, as seleções específicas do uso do vernáculo Black English em detalhes são usadas para provar a resistência do tema nos escritos de Morrison.

Quantifying geographical variation in acceptability judgments in regional American English dialect syntax

AbstractThe acceptability of many syntactic constructions varies across speakers. In some, but not all cases, such interspeaker variation is due to speakers coming from different dialect regions. However, since neither dialect regions nor acceptability judgments are discrete, it is not always straightforward to determine when variation in a construction’s acceptability is geographically constrained. In this paper, I present one method of making this determination using the Gi* statistic. I apply it to a variety of syntactic constructions, including presentative datives,so don’t I,be done my homework, intensifiers likewickedandhella, anddo-support withhave yet tosentences. Each shows a different geolinguistic profile, revealing different kinds of issues that quantitative analysis can shed light on. The results show fine-grained geolinguistic differences in syntactic acceptability judgments, demonstrating that the Gi* statistic can be fruitfully applied to further our understanding of geographically-based variation in acceptability judgments.

CRITICAL RESEARCH ON THE PEDAGOGICAL, INDIVIDUAL, AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE TOEFL PBT INTRODUCTION AS A TESTING INSTRUMENT

This research is a descriptive research by nature which tries to demonstrate various impacts to diverse communities. It gathers several important findings from previous research and draw a comprehensive outlook on how the TOEFL test has influenced the decision makers, teachers, students and outer community themselves. It is found that there has been a significant impact as the TOEFL test is administered as a test instrument worldwide. These include positive and negative impacts. For instance, the test has demanded schools to include teaching TOEFL preparation as an integrative part of syllabus. Still, students are forced to learn English intensively, but they are more inclined to attend the TOEFL class rather than regular classes. The research also shows that students prefer studying American English dialect since it is found in the test content. In wider community, the test opens job opportunities for many people especially publication industries and English private courses. However, the test also contributes to the inequality of educational opportunity between wealth and poor families.

Speaker-specific processing of anomalous utterances.

Existing work shows that readers often interpret grammatical errors (e.g., The key to the cabinets *were shiny) and sentence-level blends ("without-blend": Claudia left without her headphones *off) in a non-literal fashion, inferring that a more frequent or more canonical utterance was intended instead. This work examines how interlocutor identity affects the processing and interpretation of anomalous sentences. We presented anomalies in the context of "emails" attributed to various writers in a self-paced reading paradigm and used comprehension questions to probe how sentence interpretation changed based upon properties of the item and properties of the "speaker." Experiment 1 compared standardised American English speakers to L2 English speakers; Experiment 2 compared the same standardised English speakers to speakers of a non-Standardised American English dialect. Agreement errors and without-blends both led to more non-literal responses than comparable canonical items. For agreement errors, more non-literal interpretations also occurred when sentences were attributed to speakers of Standardised American English than either non-Standardised group. These data suggest that understanding sentences relies on expectations and heuristics about which utterances are likely. These are based upon experience with language, with speaker-specific differences, and upon more general cognitive biases.