Use Of African American English Research Articles

The globalization of local indexicalities through music: African‐American English and the blues

AbstractThis article reports on a sociolinguistic study into the prevalence of African‐American English (AAE) features in the lyrical language use of blues artists, relying on data from different social and national backgrounds and time periods. It adopts a variationist linguistic methodological approach to examine the prevalence of five AAE forms in live‐performed blues music: /aɪ/ monophthongization, post‐consonantal word‐final /t/ deletion, post‐consonantal word‐final /d/ deletion, alveolar nasal /n/ in < ing > ultimas, and post‐vocalic word‐final /r/ deletion. Mixed effects logistic regression analysis applied to a corpus of 80 performances finds no statistically significant association between national/ethnic background and variant use, and indicates that blues artists, from different eras and nationalities, are highly probable to realize the AAE variant of the analyzed variables, regardless of their sociocultural background. By building on early scholarly work on language and music, existing studies considering the use of AAE by non‐members of the African‐American community, and current theorizing on authenticity, style, and indexicality, this study hence provides tentative support for the existence of a standard blues singing style, which involves performers using AAE forms as a stylistic‐linguistic strategy to index artistic authenticity.

English BESA Morphosyntax Performance Among Spanish-English Bilinguals Who Use African American English.

Purpose This study examined the use of African American English (AAE) among a group of young Latinx bilingual children and the accuracy of the English Morphosyntax subtest of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) in classifying these children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). Method Children (N = 81) between the ages of 4;0 and 7;1 (years;months) completed a narrative task and the BESA Morphosyntax subtest. We identified DLD based on four reference measures. We compared specific dialectal features used by children with DLD and their typically developing peers. We also conducted an overall analysis of the BESA subtest and subsequent item-level analyses to determine if particular items were more likely to contribute to the correct classification of the participants. Results Children with DLD used three AAE forms in their narrative samples (subject-verb agreement, zero copula/auxiliary, or zero past tense) more frequently than their typically developing peers. Area-under-the-curve estimates for the cloze, sentence repetition, and composite scores of the BESA indicated that the assessment identified children with DLD in the sample with good sensitivity. Item analysis indicated that the majority of items (84%) significantly differentiated typically developing children and children with DLD. Conclusions The BESA English Morphosyntax subtest appears to be a valid tool for the identification of DLD in children exposed to AAE and Spanish. We provide practical implications and suggestions for future research addressing the identification of DLD among children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Winning Spelling Bee Competition: The Representation of Black Girl in Akeelah and The Bee (2006) Movie

<p class="AbstractText">This research examines the representations of African-American stereotype and the struggle of Black American girl in National Spelling Bee contest in Hollywood movie entitled Akeelah and the Bee (2006). The use of African-American English (AAVE) is one of the stereotype often depicted in Hollywood movie. Race theories are used to examine the relationship between race, racism and power. Meanwhile, Roland Barthes’s theory and semiotic film theory are used to examine the meaning portrayed in the movie. Findings show that the representation of Akeelah as a successful participant in the spelling bee competition challenges the stereotype of African American as academic underclass, and as associated with crime, failure and frustration. Akeelah is represented as a successful African American girl as she assimilates (adopts) American values of change/mobility, time and its importance, action and work orientation. The assimilation is achieved through a mentoring process and support from African American community.</p><p class="AbstractText"> </p><p class="AbstractText"><em>Keywords</em>: African-American, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Stereotype, Spelling Bee</p>

An In-service Teacher’s Use of Code-meshing Pedagogies: Cultivating Formal and Informal Contexts for Writing Development in a Clinical Setting

ABSTRACT This study examined an in-service teacher’s enactment of code-meshing and code-switching pedagogies in a clinical summer reading clinic, as a requirement for a reading specialist program. Thus, the enactment of code-meshing pedagogies was based upon embracing the students’ use of African American English (AAE) in academic writing contexts and during the reading of texts with AAE features. The study examined code-switching pedagogies and acceptance of a third grade student’s use of AAE in informal writing contexts and translating to Standard American English (SAE) for formal writing contexts. An examination of field-notes, formal teacher and student interviews, and formal and informal writing samples revealed the student’s understanding of distinctions between formal and informal English. Furthermore, critical language awareness emerged upon offering the student the option of writing a published book in SAE or AAE. Results suggest a need for teachers to respect language features on behalf of language minority students, to make distinctions and provide a balance between formal and informal writing and speaking conventions, while embracing the use of AAE in academic writing and reading contexts.

‘Where all my bad girls at?’

This article examines the polyvalence of racial(ised) representations in K-pop performances. The analysis of K-pop star CL’s (2013) song and video ‘Nappeun gijibae’ (‘The bad girl’) demonstrates how the artist projects an assertive femininity by embodying and localising the Bad Bitch: a sexually agentive figure of womanhood from US hip hop. CL’s use of African American English and conventionalised hip hop tropes helps resignify gijibae, a pejorative Korean term for women. By shifting between decontextualised styles invoking a different time and place, CL is able to build a kind of chronotopic capital that transforms fragmented styles into an empowered cosmopolitan femininity. However, although CL’s performance challenges Korean gendered norms in its use of local linguistic resources, her selective appropriations of US Black and Chicanx cultural signifiers reproduce narrow images of racialised femininities and reify a hierarchy of valuation along lines of gender and race.

“It’s a Whole Vibe”: testing evaluations of grammatical and ungrammatical AAE on Twitter

Abstract This study focuses on listener perceptions of African American English (AAE) on Twitter, examining both grammatical and ungrammatical usages, as well as how these perceptions may be affected by the race of the speaker and rater. We conducted an experimental survey designed to address the following questions: 1. Does avatar race affect perception of the grammaticality of AAE? 2. Are differences between grammatical and ungrammatical AAE discernible to naive raters of different races? 3. How are various social attributes evaluated for avatars of different races and different linguistic varieties? Results indicate that participants generally do not downgrade avatars who use grammatical AAE on ratings of grammaticality or personal characteristics. However, participants of all races disprefer ungrammatical uses of AAE, with black raters being especially sensitive to ungrammatical AAE. These findings have implications for sociolinguistics in that they demonstrate that participants across racial backgrounds may differentiate grammatical versus ungrammatical AAE online, and that contrary to expectations based on previous literature, AAE is not universally downgraded in these contexts. However, results also indicate that the use of AAE still negatively impacts listeners’ perceptions of speakers as educated, demonstrating that some widespread biases against AAE-speakers persist in an online context.

Rare Vocabulary Production in School-Age Narrators From Low-Income Communities.

Purpose This study was designed to assess the utility of a tool for automated analysis of rare vocabulary use in the spoken narratives of a group of school-age children from low-income communities. Method We evaluated personal and fictional narratives from 76 school-age children from low-income communities (M age = 9;3 [years;months]). We analyzed children's use of rare vocabulary in their narratives, with the goal of evaluating relationships among rare vocabulary use, performance on standardized language tests, language sample measures, sex, and use of African American English. Results Use of rare vocabulary in school-age children is robustly correlated with established language sample measures. Male sex was also significantly associated with more frequent rare vocabulary use. There was no association between rare vocabulary use and use of African American English. Discussion Evaluation of rare vocabulary use in school-age children may be a culturally fair assessment strategy that aligns well with existing language sample measures.

Teachers' Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Beliefs Regarding the Use of African American English.

Purpose In order to provide appropriate and effective assessment and instructional activities, teachers are encouraged to develop their cultural competency. Although speech-language pathologists (SLPs) receive training on the linguistic features of nonmainstream dialects of English, such as African American English (AAE), less is known about teachers' training, beliefs, and pedagogical knowledge surrounding this topic. Method Using stratified random sampling by county population, we invited educators within selected Ohio school districts to complete an online survey (n = 17,548). The survey probed teachers' pre- and postservice training, beliefs, and knowledge of linguistic features and terminology relating to AAE. A total of 571 teachers completed at least 50% of the survey items (3.66% response rate). Results Few teachers report receiving training on AAE and demonstrated a limited grasp of linguistic terms commonly found in AAE literature; however, many teachers reported feeling confident in their abilities to identify features of AAE in written language tasks. In terms of school culture, teachers reported that they believed AAE to be more appropriate outside (rather than inside) the classroom, and only one third of teachers received resources to enhance their knowledge of the cultural and linguistic features of AAE. Conclusions Results suggest that teachers may benefit from increased access to training and materials to further develop their cultural competence. Given SLPs' familiarity with cultural and linguistic variability, SLPs may work to support teachers' cultural competence and encourage culturally appropriate assessment and intervention practices. Additional research is needed to determine how teachers' skills in these areas predict effectiveness/teaching ability and which factors are most important in the provision of culturally relevant instruction.

African American English and Early Literacy: A Comparison of Approaches to Quantifying Nonmainstream Dialect Use.

Purpose Many studies have found a correlation between overall usage rates of nonmainstream forms and reading scores, but less is known about which dialect differences are most predictive. Here, we consider different methods of characterizing African American English use from existing assessments and examine which methods best predict literacy achievement. Method Kindergarten and first-grade students who speak African American English received two assessments of dialect use and two assessments of decoding at the beginning and end of the school year. Item-level analyses of the dialect-use assessments were used to compute measures of dialect usage: (a) an overall feature rate measure based on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test, (b) a subscore analysis of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test based on items that pattern together, (c) an alternative assessment where children repeat and translate sentences, and (d) "repertoire" measures based on a categorical distinction of whether a child used a particular feature of mainstream American English. Results Models using feature rate measures provided better data-model fit than those with repertoire measures, and baseline performance on a sentence repetition task was a positive predictor of reading score at the end of the school year. For phonological subscores, change from the beginning to end of the school year predicted reading at the end of the school year, whereas baseline scores were most predictive for grammatical subscores. Conclusions The addition of a sentence imitation task is useful for understanding a child's dialect and anticipating potential areas for support in early literacy. We observed some support for the idea that morphological dialect differences (i.e., irregular verb morphology) have a particularly close tie to later literacy, but future work will be necessary to confirm this finding. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13425968.

An examination of cultural-linguistic influences on PPVT-4 performance in African American and Hispanic preschoolers from low-income communities

ABSTRACTIn this study, we examined potential influences of cultural and linguistic background on PPVT-4 performance in a community sample of preschool-age children from low-SES households. We did this by evaluating PPVT-4 item-level performance across African American and Hispanic children from low-income families. We compared PPVT-4 item-level performance for 332 Hispanic and African American children (Mage = 48 months) using Wald chi-square tests of independence. There were clinically significant differences in accuracy on 14 PPVT-4 test items with most favouring the African American group. We then looked at the relationship between African American English use and PPVT-4 scores for a subset of 113 African American children (Mage = 49.9 months). A correlational analysis with PPVT-4 standard scores and a dialect density measure (DDM) in narratives revealed no association between these measures. We concluded that there were potential cultural-linguistic biases in PPVT-4 items that were not explained by income alone for the young Hispanic children.

Linguistic discrimination on campus: Ratings of and attitudes toward student writing with African-American English

Based on empirical evidence, this study identifies a contradiction between attitudes towards the use of African-American English in student writing vs. how such writing is actually rated by university English instructors. Even when instructors expressed highly positive views of the use of stigmatized varieties of English in student essays, a statistically significant difference (p=0.027) was found between their ratings of essays with and without features of African-American English. These findings indicate that university instructors, even those who are consciously aware that linguistic discrimination is problematic, are not immune to the effects of linguistic discrimination. These results highlight the importance of dialect education and awareness programs for university English instructors as well as the need for further research into the prevalence of standard language ideology and linguistic discrimination at the university level.

Identity through Language: Use of African American English in the Plays of Lorraine Hansberry

Identity through Language: Use of African American English in the Plays of Lorraine Hansberry

‘First things first, I'm the realest’: Linguistic appropriation, white privilege, and the hip‐hop persona of Iggy Azalea

The ‘hip‐hop nation’ is a multiethnic, transnational community that originates from and privileges urban African American experiences. Scholars have explored ways that non‐African Americans worldwide use linguistic features of African American English (AAE) as a way of constructing hip‐hop affiliated identities. The current paper ties these strands together in a study of the linguistic patterns of white Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, who makes use ofAAEin her music, but not in other public speech. Our study presents a variationist analysis of copula absence in her lyrics. Findings show that her rates of this hallmark feature ofAAEare extremely high, when compared to similar analyses of other rappers. We argue that her overzealous application ofAAEfeatures in her music, in order to create a specific linguistic style, enables a success that rests ultimately on the appropriation of African American language and culture, and the privilege that whiteness affords.

Contexts for Student AAE Use in the Classroom

This research examines students' use of African American English (AAE) in classrooms with varying levels of procedural and substantive engagement. In this study, classroom context is examined for type of engagement, turn length, and teacher response to student AAE use. Student AAE use is analyzed by ethnicity, gender, and teacher, and by features used. The data show a predominant use of AAE by African American and female students, and its prevalence in contexts of substantive engagement. Analysis of type of engagement in studies such as this serves to further understand students' linguistic choices in the classroom and calls for additional research with respect to subsequent discussion and student achievement.

Dyadic analysis: Factors affecting African American English usage and accommodation in adolescent peer dyads

This study analyzes relative accommodation of African American English (AAE) usage in peer interactions for 201 African American adolescent dyads at Grades 6, 8, and 10. A Dialect Density Measure (DDM: Van Hofwegen and Wolfram, 2010) assessed speakers' overall AAE use. Then, dyadic analysis revealed that variation between dyads was greater than variation within dyads. That is, children were significantly similar (accommodate) to their peers at all three time points, regardless of whether their peers were self-selected or assigned. However, girls' and boys' accommodation varied by how well they knew their peers and in terms of ethnically- or formality-salient features.

Speaking Up for African American English: Equity and Inclusion in Early Childhood Settings

A large percentage of young children entering preschool are English speakers who speak a language variety that often differs from the English dialect expected by educators within early childhood programs. While African American English (AAE) is one of the most widely recognized English dialects in the United States, the use of AAE in schools and programs has been viewed negatively. In this article, we assert that to meet the needs of young children who speak AAE, educators can take an equity and inclusion perspective to consider practices related to dialect. To this end, we discuss (a) meanings of equity and inclusion, (b) AAE dialect characteristics and importance, (c) educator perceptions of AAE, and (d) recommendations to provide equitable and inclusive early childhood services to young children who speak AAE. We suggest that early childhood educators reflect on linguistic identity and biases, investigate linguistic diversity, explicitly teach standard English, and partner with families to learn about diversity and dialect. By focusing on both equity and inclusion, early childhood educators can foster an accepting environment and positive outcomes for all children, including those who speak AAE.

Phonological awareness skills in young African American English speakers

The purpose of this study was to examine African American children’s performance on a phonological awareness task that included items reflecting differences between African American English (AAE) and mainstream American English. The relationship between spoken production of AAE forms and performance on phonological awareness, vocabulary, and letter-word recognition tasks was also investigated. Analyses indicated that children who produced fewer AAE features in speech performed significantly different from those who produced AAE features more frequently on the experimental phonological awareness task. Furthermore, analyses showed that the relationship between spoken AAE production and phonological awareness was partially mediated, while the relationship with letter-word recognition was fully mediated. Overall, the results suggest a direct relation between spoken AAE use and phonological awareness and an indirect relation with letter-word reading.

Parsing Pragmatics

Parsing Pragmatics

Assessment of Structure Dependent Narrative Features in Modeled Contexts: African American and European American Children

The purpose of this study was to describe similarities and differences in structure-dependent features of narratives produced by 132 typically developing African American (AA) and European American (EA) children in a modeled elicitation context, across three age groups. Participants included 132 AA and EA children matched for gender, age, and geographic region. Children were divided into young, middle, and older elementary age groups. After listening to a model narrative and answering questions about it, children were asked to generate their own narrative. Narratives were analyzed for story grammar (macrostructure), organizational style (topic centered and topic associating), dialect and cohesion (microstructure). Differences in narratives varied by age and gender but not ethnicity with the exception of the use of overt planning. EA children were more likely than AA children to include a plan in their story across all age groups. Developmental changes in narration are described for children ranging in age from 6;0 to 11;9. The use of African American English (AAE) was not associated with differences in the cohesiveness of narratives. The modeled elicitation context holds promise as a reliable way to examine narration for school-age children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The Effect of Dialect Instruction on Student Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward African American English

This study assessed whether instruction in African American English (AAE) phonological and grammatical rules improved speech-language pathology students’ knowledge of AAE features. Students were also instructed in the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association’s (ASHA’s) position on nonstandard American English (non-SAE) dialects, which states that non-SAE dialects should be viewed as valid variations of SAE and should not be viewed as disordered speech. Students were given surveys before and after the instruction to assess their knowledge of AAE features and their attitudes toward AAE use. After instruction in the rules of AAE, students significantly improved their knowledge of the phonological and grammatical features of AAE. In addition, students changed their attitudes toward clinical practice with clients who speak AAE in the schools. At posttest, knowledge of AAE rules was significantly correlated with several attitudes toward clinical practice. This suggests that dialect instruction can improve students’ knowledge of non-SAE dialects.