Lakeisha Johnson|Nicole Patton Terry|Carol McDonald Connor|Shurita Thomas-Tate
The effects of dialect awareness instruction on nonmainstream American English speakers
Georgia State University|Georgia State University|University of California, Irvine|Missouri State University
achievement gaps poor affluent students persistent chronic many students living poverty also members isolated communities dialects african american english southern vernacular english often spoken nonmainstream dialect use associated weaker literacy achievement principal aims two experiments described paper examine whether second fourth graders use home english contexts formal school english expected taught dialect shift home school english depending context whether leads stronger writing literacy outcomes results two randomized controlled trials students within classrooms randomly assigned daws dialect awareness program explicitly teach dialect shifting editing instruction business usual group revealed 1 daws effective promoting dialect shifting instruction explicitly contrast home school english 2 students studies participated daws significantly likely use school english contexts expected proximal distal outcomes including narrative writing morphosyntactic awareness reading comprehension implications theory practice discussed