Language study could help second graders' test scores

Tuesday

Southeast Elementary School second graders could be the inaugural subjects in a language study conducted by linguist researchers, if all goes well.

Southeast Elementary School second graders could be the inaugural subjects in a language study conducted by linguist researchers, if all goes well.

Their previous research shows the discrepancy between home and school language can have a negative effect on test scores, so they want to analyze the slightest differences between the two dialects using brain wave caps.

During the experiment, 40 Southeast second graders will be studied one-by-one as they watch a 15-minute cartoon featuring characters using a mixture of home and school language.

J. Michael Terry, an associate professor at UNC, and Mako Hirotani, an associate professor of linguistics at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, performed a full demonstration for parents, teachers and school board members on Monday, answering questions about the study and mitigating concerns about the equipment’s safety.

“I know it can look a little intimidating,” Terry said about a brain cap with 32 connectors hooked up to an amplifier. “Nothing is going into the brain from our equipment.”

He said it works like a microphone as the censors — which will have no contact with the child’s head — read electrical brain activity and send its frequencies to a monitor for the researchers to later analyze.

Because the researchers are focusing on what small differences affect test scores, such as the difference between “He eats” and “He eat,” there’s no way to ask children how they felt in the microseconds it takes to recognize the third person singular ‘s’for example.

The machine can do it for them by revealing brainwave patterns.

Hirotani, the director of the language and brain labs at Carleton, said she’s used the equipment for 10 years, even on infants. For the past 50 years, brainwave patterns have been studied.

If the Board of Education approves this language study, it will be the first time the equipment has been used to study how dialect effects test scores and what teachers can do to close the gap.

“We particularly know (language) has some effect on how a student performs in school because (the home and school language) do not match,” said Steve Mazingo, Lenoir County Schools superintendent. “We particularly know it has some effect on test scores. We have not known exactly what is tripping up the kids.”

The researchers already have data focused on second graders because they said it’s a “linguistically transitional period” where they’ll be able to identify language discrepancies.

“We just want to tell teachers where the optimal difference is,” Terry said about the research.

Charis Walker, a second-grade teacher whose students will be directly affected if the research group returns in the spring, said research-based practices are something all educators should strive for.

“Any additional data we can gather that will help us target our instruction to help students is something I think would be helpful for us all,” she said.

The group has worked previously with Southeast, conducting a Dialect Awareness program last year.

Additionally, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute analyzed the math word problems from standardized tests of 75 dialect-speaking second graders, finding that 15 percent of the children who performed low could have gotten nine percent more questions right if they understood that small difference with the third person singular ‘s.’ Terry, along with a colleague, analyzed the data and added it to other pieces they already had about second-grade dialect.

He said the proposed study will eventually teach students how and what to pay attention to in language to master a home and school dialect.

“Everyone speaks a dialect,” Terry said. “We don’t think of it as correct or incorrect, there are different rule systems. We want kids to maintain their home dialect … but master academic school English.”

Terry and Hirotani, along with N.C. State’s Walt Wolfram, presented the proposal before the Board of Education on Monday night. Members were interested enough to approve Tuesday’s presentation, but raised questions about equipment safety and why they chose a predominantly black school.

“The particular difference that we’re looking at is largely a difference that is used more often in the black community,” Terry said. “The kids are worth it … These are kids who quite often, to be blunt, don’t get the best. We want them to have that.”

He said the equipment can facilitate the most advanced techniques of science and linguist theories available to them.

“I just want to make sure they did everything correctly, especially when you’re just talking about minority kids,” board member Garland Nobles Jr. said at Monday’s meeting. “That school is in my district, so I just wanted to make sure they’re well-protected.”

Southeast parents had multiple questions about the study, but seemed interested after seeing Terry and Hirotani demonstrate on Matthew Gibson, a 16-year-old junior at Riverside High School in Durham, who said the brain cap felt like “nothing.”

“I’m excited. I’m ready to jump in and do it myself,” said Dawn Whitfield, who has two children attending Southeast. “I think it’s a great idea (and) I think the information we find out will truly benefit many students on a vast scale.”

Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.