Article 2: Language Deficits or Differences: African American Vernacular English

Harris, Y.R., & Schroeder, V.M. (2013). Language deficits or differences: What we know about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the 21st century. International Education Studies, 6(4): 194-204.

Keywords: language difference vs. disorder, AAVE, updated research

*The underlines are my additions for getting a quicker overview!*

Can be used for:

-Language/dialectal difference vs. disorder
-Multicultural essay on comps
-Assessment and appropriate intervention for those who speak AAVE

Purpose: To present an overview of the current research that examines the language and literacy performance of African American children who speak AAVE. Published in the Department of Psychology at Miami University, Oxford, OH.

Since this was an overview, I put the quotes for each section underneath the appropriate headings.

Sections:
I.  Discusses the language and literacy outcomes of AAVE speakers.

• "...some studies have reported that African American children score lower on tests of verbal ability and reading achievement. Conversely, other studies have demonstrated the opposite, in that African American children show no significant difference on tests of expressive vocabulary or oral and written language proficiency" (p. 195).
• "....studies that have examined SES in relation to language and literacy outcome differences between African American and European American children can often attribute SES to the differences (Champion et al., 2003; Qi et al., 2006; Qi et al., 2003; Restrepo et al., 2006; Terry, Connor, Thomas-Tate, & Love, 2010), and studies in which differences did emerge but in which SES was not examined, typically tested children of low SES (Charity et al., 2004), and thus could potentially indicate poor performance due to SES status rather than AAVE use (p. 195). 
• "Dialect switching...children were more apt to use SAE for tasks involving writing or sentence imitation, but AAVE for tasking involving more verbal assessments, such as the narrative elicitation and picture description task. Without this assessment of multiple contexts, this important aspect of AAVE use would have gone unnoticed in assessments of AAVE use in single contexts. Additionally, Connor and Craig (2006) demonstrated that current level of vocabulary use was not related with AAVE use, debunking the myth that children who use AAVE demonstrate deficient language skills" (p. 195). 
• "Importantly, older African American children show no difference in language and literacy outcomes than their counterparts, suggesting that any potential differences that may have been present in early childhood become negligible in adolescence...Such findings suggest that AAVE speakers may tend to adopt SAE as a second language for which they must learn to use in specific circumstances and environments (Beaulieu, 2002; Connor & Craig, 2006)" (p. 195)

II. The issue of assessment and remediation, with a focus on identifying how to assess literacy in AAVE speakers and steps toward remediation.

• "African American children are of the highest percentage of children enrolled in special education and remedial classes (Gravois & Rosenfield, 2006) in the United States" (p. 196).
• "...the theory that posited children who use AAVE experience deficient language skills was challenged due to inappropriate assessment measures and research methodology. Importantly, studies sensitive to historically erroneous assessments and methodologies showed no measurable differences of literacy skills between AAVE and SAE speakers (Harris & Graham, 2007; Terry, Connor, Thomas-Tate, & Love, 2010)" (p. 196).
• "...interventions should not be focused on remediation attempts to erase AAVE dialectical differences (Stockman, 2010). Such interventions devalue the African American culture as a whole, and the family and community of which the students are engaged (LeMoine, 2001). Rather, culturally sensitive interventions must understand that AAVE use connects these speakers with their communities and cultures, and that parsing these ties would be a drastic, and unnecessary measure. Successful remediation attempts for literacy skills of AAVE speakers, therefore, may lie in the remediation of SAE proficiency" in which dialect switching is encouraged (p. 196).
• "Elementary students who were assessed as having AAVE elements in their written work were assigned to one of three research conditions: simple exposure of stories containing SAE elements, exposure to SAE story elements plus explanations for proper SAE use, or exposure to SAE story elements, proper SAE use explanations, and instruction on how to transform AAVE written passages into SAE appropriate passages. Fogel and Ehri demonstrated that children in the third condition, in which all elements were used, were significantly more successful in their SAE writing tasks than either of the other conditions" that is, direct instruction of transforming written passages from AAVE to SAE was found to be the most successful approach (p. 197).

III. Suggestions for developmental psychologists and others on employing appropriate theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches.

• This section focuses on applying Vygotskian and Working Memory Model theories to AAVE vs. SAE. Although interesting, I tried to stick to information that could be more usable in reports for SLPs.
• "...there are certain words in AAVE that do not have a shared meaning with SAE (Charity, Scarborough, & Griffin, 2004)" and thus children who speak AAVE may not connect real life experiences to SAE meanings due to a qualitative difference in the two dialects (p. 198).
• "...remediation and instruction designed to aid children who speak AAVE to transition to SAE must be repetitive and planned with the awareness of the 'cognitive load' on their existing working memory capacity and based on the previous learning experiences these children have with language in their natural contexts...Furthermore, there may be a great deal of individual variation in the rate at which certain children transition to SAE" (p. 199).
• "Speaking a language different from SAE brings with it a psychosocial dimension that can significantly affect children’s sense of self worth, self efficacy and identify and ultimately undermine their mastery of material (Bialystok, 2001)" (p. 200).
• "Consequently because of the stigma associated with speaking AAVE and teacher feedback, some 'disidentify' with the academic process, and exhibit a low effort syndrome (Strambler & Weinstein, 2010). This is manifested in their devaluing of academic success (I don’t care if I don’t do well at reading), and their discounting of feedback about their performance (i.e. the teacher gave me a bad grade because s/he does not like me)" (p. 200). 

IV. Discussion of controversy and litigations surrounding AAVE in the past.

• This section focused on two specific litigations: Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School children et al., vs. the Ann Arbor School District (1974) and The Ebonics Resolution in Oakland (1996) that sparked research and books on AAVE and SAE in schools.