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VOCABULARY AND SYNTACTICAL PERFORMANCES BY
TWO CULTURAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPS
by
MARGARET CLEARY DURAN, B.S. in Ed.
A THESIS
IN
SPEECH PATHOLOGY AND AUDIOLOGY
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN
SPEECH PATHOLOGY AND AUDIOLOGY
Approved
August, 1973
r\^0'/:\<^
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Leornard Ellis and Dr.
Earlene Paynter for their direction of this thesis.
I wish to thank Dr. Harold Hitt, Miss Vidaurri, Dr.
Scott, Mrs. Pavelha, Mrs. Pickett, Mr. McAskill, Miss Hasler,
and the San Antonio Independent School District whose time
and cooperation helped make this study possible.
I wish to thank Glenn Harrison, Mrs. Grady, Mr. Hartley,
Mr. Chumrey, Mr. Masten, Mr. Simmons, Mr. Fennell, Mr. Green,
and the Plainview Independent School District whose time and
cooperation helped make this study possible.
I wish to thank my parents, Mr, and Mrs. Colin Locke,
for their financial assistance, and my husband, John, for
his patience.
11
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii
LIST OF TABLES iv
I. INTRODUCTION 1
Definition of Terms 2
Review of the Literature 3
Purpose of This Study 10
II. RESEARCH DESIGN 11
Subjects 11
Tests AcMinistered 11
Test Administration 12
Analysis of the Data 13
III. RESULTS 15
IV. DISCUSSION 20
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 27
Purpose 27
Procedure 28
Results 28
Conclusions 29
REFERENCES 31
APPENDIX: ELIGIBILITY STANDARDS FOR FREE AND REDUCED PRICE LUNCHES 34
1 1 1
LIST OF TABLES
Table
1. Summary of the Analysis of Variance of the Receptive Subtest of the NSST 15
2. Summary of the Analysis of Variance of the Expressive Subtest of the NSST 16
3. Summary of the Analysis of Variance of the PPVT 17
4. Means of the Main Effects 18
IV
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Black English effectively serves the communicative
needs of its people and is as ordered, systematic and rule-
governed as standard English (Bauman, 1971). However, it
is reported that children who speak black dialect are
educationally impoverished (Raph, 1967; Thomas, 1962).
Numerous studies dealing with the vocabulary of cul
turally different, low socio-economic class children
indicate problems in mastering the vocabulary of standard
English (Raph, 1967). In black dialect nouns and verbs
predominate; adjectives and adverbs are rigidly governed by
set rules. Many words in black dialect have totally
different meanings than that of standard English. For
example, "bad" in black English means "fantastic" in
standard English; "get down" means "get involved"; and a
"hog" is a Cadillac.
Although a great amount of information can be found
in the literature regarding black English in urban communi
ties of the South and Northeast of the United States, very
little has been written about the Black child in the state
of Texas. The purpose of this study was to investigate
whether Anglo and Black children of the same socio-economic
group in the south and high plains of Texas differ in
language abilities as measured by the Northwestern Syntax
Screening Test (Lee, 1970) and the Peabody Picture Vocabu
lary Test (Dunn, 1959).
Definition of Terms
In this paper, the terms "Black" and "Negro" refer to
persons of the Negroid race and will be used interchangably.
The terms "White" and "Anglo" refer to persons of the Cau
casian race, excluding those with other than English dia
lects, and will also be used interchangably.
Language—a code for representing concepts of a given
culture. Language involves encoding and decoding and
various prerequisites such as perception, memory, and
motor function. Language is culturally determined
(Taylor, 1970).
Standard English—the language of books, the language
spoken by the educated and elite of a society. Char
acteristics of standard English are syntactical
rigidity, with some flexibility in phonology, lexicon,
and prosody depending on the speech community (Taylor,
1970).
Nonstandard English—varieties of English spoken by those
with little education, political, social, or economic
prestige and power. Nonstandard English is highly
correlated with linguistic attitudes and includes
phonological, semantic, and syntactic elements.
Groups most likely judged as using nonstandard English
include Blacks, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and
White Appalachians (Taylor, 1970).
Review of the Literature
Historical Review of Black English
Black people have been exposed, in the context of
colonialism and slavery, to many European powers and to
the language of those powers. The Black people borrowed
from the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English languages
and placed them into African syntactic structure (Taylor,
1971). Before coming to the New World, Black people fre
quently had a knowledge of the English language which was
influenced by Black Portugese, other Creoles, and West
Africans, Their language was a highly structured system
when they came to the United States (Taylor, 1969),
From 1620 to 1700 there was not much literature on
the speech of the Black slaves but there was strong indi
cation that African "Pidgin" English was widely known
(Dillard, 1972). By the end of the eighteenth century,
the black language in the continental colonies was suffi
ciently documented and could be seen in the well-known
literary works of that period. According to Dillard (1972)
three distinct groups of slaves could be identified on
the basis of their language patterns. These groups were:
1) those who learned English from their masters; 2) the
mass of native-born field workers who spoke Plantation
Creole; and 3) the recent "imports" from Africa, some of
whom probably brought Pidgin English with them and others
who faced a difficult language learning problem.
Dillard believes that during the pre- and post-Civil
War period, black English affected and was affected by
Southern white dialects. He states that the process of
assimilation was bi-directional: 1) Some aspects of white
speech were assimilated by Blacks in the process of
"decreolization"; and 2) the social setting of the Old
South was quite conducive for Whites to assimilate aspects
of black speech. Such was the case when the Black maid
cared for the White master's children in addition to her
own children.
These historical views (Taylor, 1969; Dillard, 1972)
suggest that Black children are inherently different from
White children on the basis of different cultural back
grounds and linguistic components. However this does not
mean that Black children are totally unlike White children
or that all Black children are the same. In fact, there
are many areas which overlap in these racial groups,
Taylor (1969) points out that individual Black children
vary according to their social class, family structure,
community size, degree of family and environmental cultural
assimilation, amount and type of exposure to the white
community, and geography. Despite all these differences
most Black people are still endowed with black culture and
distinct linguistic behavior. Taylor believes that every
Black person has a knowledge of his culture and a compe
tence for the black language.
Studies Related to Articulation and Language Abilities of Economically Disadvantaged Black Children
Administering culturally and nonculturally weighted
questions to 213 pairs of high and low socio-economic
Anglo and Negro subjects, McGurk (1953) found no evidence
that culturally weighted test material discriminates
against the Negro, Furthermore, his results gave no evi
dence that as the socio-economic status of the Negro
increases, racial test score differences decrease,
Williams and Naremore (1969) reported the degrees and
types of syntactic elaboration found in the speech of 20
Negro and 20 Anglo fifth- and sixth-grade children selected
from relatively low and middle ranges of the socio-economic
scale. They found reliable social class differences indi
cating that children from the higher status sample tended
to employ more elaborated syntactic patterns than children
from the lower status sample.
Osser (1966) studied the syntax of an unspecified
number of five-year-old, low and middle socio-economic
class Negro children. He found certain syntactical
structures to be absent in the low socio-economic class
sample. Osser attributes this finding to environmental
rather than maturational factors.
Mok and Howard (1972) acSministered 43 specifically
designed declarative sentences to 113 seven- and eight-
year-old children. The children were divided into three
groups: low socio-economic Negro, low socio-economic
Anglo, and high socio-economic Anglo. They reported that
the low socio-economic group of Black children performed
more poorly than the other two groups in determining
whether a declarative sentence is positive or negative and.
in adding the correct tag response.
Butts (1970) reported the performance of four urban
cultural groups (12 middle class Whites, 12 lower class
Whites, 12 middle class Blacks, and 12 lower class Blacks)
on 12 subtests of the 1968 revised edition of the Illinois
Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and three areas of the
Cross Cultural Study of Perception. He concluded that the
middle class Whites were superior to the other three
groups in all areas of the tests administered. A signifi
cant finding was the middle class Blacks were significantly
superior to lower class Whites on visual sequential memory.
Psycholinguistic profiles of three different ethnic
groups of an unspecified number of second grade children
were abstracted from the data of the Westinghouse study
(1969). The findings reveal that Black children scored
higher in auditory sequential memory than did the Anglo
and Mexican American children. The Black children scored
lowest of the ethnic groups in visual sequential memory
but this score was still higher than most of their other
subtest scores,
Blackburn (1970) investigated the differences in
language structure patterns of Black children from higher
class stable families, lower class stable families, and
lower class unstable families. The language structure
expression portion of the Michigan Picture Language
Inventory was administered to a total of 36 seven- and
eight-year-old children. Her findings suggest that dif
ferences in psychosocial environment may affect linguistic
performance and that higher class Blacks utilize essentially
standard English grammatical forms,
Carson and Rabin (1960) studied the vocabulary of 30
Northern White, 30 Northern Negro, and 30 Southern Negro
children, using the Full Range Picture Vocabulary Test and
the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Vocabulary
Test as measures. They found that the White children were
superior to the Negro children, and the Northern Negro
8
children were superior to the Southern Negro chil(iren on
these two measures. Although socio-economic status was
not controlled, Carson and Rabin believed that geographical
residency of the Negro children was an important determinant
of vocabulary performance. Furthermore, they believed that
the differences between Negro and White vocabulary scores
may have been primarily due to failure in verbal communica
tion rather than in comprehension.
Harris (1969) investigated the articulation of a total
of 36 five- and six-year-old lower class Negro and White
children, using the Tempiin-Darley Test of Articulation,
She found significant differences between Negro and White
groups and between upper-lower and lower-lower class Negro
groups, Harris hypothesized that the articulation problems
of the Negro children were systematic, cultural differences,
and suggested that revised therapeutic methods be required.
Studies Employing the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) to Evaluate Language Abilities of Various Cultural and Socio-Economic Groups
Rieber and Womack (1968) reported the results of a
study performed on a group of 568 Negro, Mexican-American,
and Anglo preschool children from families with incomes
in the lowest 20 per cent of the community. The average
receptive vocabulary I,Q. as determined by the Peabody
Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was 85.0 for Anglos, 69.0
for Negroes, and 50.3 for Mexican Americans,
Wolfram, Williams and Taylor (1972) studied black
dialectal variations on several standardized tests,
including the PPVT and the NSST. Their inventory taken
of children's speech reflects general dialectal bias
which potentially exists in language development tests.
Regarding the PVVT, Taylor (1972) listed seven linguistic
biases against speakers of black English:
1. Concept is probably familiar but subject may use a different word for it.
2. Concept is probably familiar, but subject probably has no word for it.
3. Concept is probably familiar, word is probably familiar, but possibly not recognized by subject because of different pronunciation.
4. Concept is probably familiar, but picture may be ambiguous or inappropriate for the subject.
5. Concept contained in the test is probably unfamiliar, word may be familiar but used in a way different from that of the test,
6. Both the concept and the word could be unfamiliar to subject,
7. No obvious conceptual linguistic bias.
Regarding the NSST, Wolfram (1972) predicted dialect
interference in all of the test sentences. The following
were a few of his predictions: D.V. = Dialectal Variation
lb The baby is not sleeping. D.V. The baby not sleeping.
5b The fish are swimming, D.V, The fishes swimming.
8b This is his wagon. D.V. Here go the wagon.
10a Mother says, "Where is that boy?" D.V, Mother say, "Where that boy at?"
10
Purpose of This Study
The literature regarding black English and socio
economic factors seems to indicate that the Black child
is deficient in the language skills of standard English,
However, there are conflicting views on whether their
language deficit is attributable to cultural or socio
economic factors. The purpose of this study was to in
vestigate whether Black and Anglo children in Texas from
the same socio-economic group differed in language abilities
as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT),
and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST), The
following null hypotheses were tested in this study:
1) There are no statistically significant differ
ences in the language skills of Black and Anglo
children as judged by a comparison of their
performance on the PPVT and the NSST.
2) There are no statistically significant differences
in the language skills of middle socio-economic
class children and lower socio-economic class
children as judged by a comparison of their
performance on the PPVT and the NSST.
3) There are no statistically significant differences
in the language skills of children from urban
communities of Texas and rural communities of
Texas as judged by a comparison of their per
formance on the PPVT and the NSST.
CHAPTER II
RESEARCH DESIGN
Subjects
The subjects were selected from three schools in South
Texas and six schools in the Texas Panhandle, A total of
84 children, 40 Black and 44 Anglo children were included
who met the following criteria:
1) exhibited normal intelligence as judged by the
classroom teacher and principal;
2) had normal hearing and had passed the school's
routine screening test;
3) had never been enrolled in speech therapy;
4) were in the second grade without having failed
first grade;
5) were under nine years of age.
The criterion used in determining socio-economic
status was entrance into the federally administered free
lunch program for the low socio-economic group and non-
entrance into the free lunch program for the middle socio
economic group. Guidelines for a(3mission into the free
lunch program are presented in Appendix A,
Tests Administered
Northwestern Syntax Screening Test
The NSST was used to evaluate language ability. It
11
12
included a comparison between receptive and expressive use
of syntax. Grammatical features included prepositions,
personal pronouns, negatives, plurals, reflexive pronouns,
verb tenses, subject-object identification, possessives,
wh-questions, passives, and indirect objects (Lee, 1970).
The testing procedure consisted of 1) picture selection
in response to increasingly difficult spoken sentences
and 2) sentence repetition. Specific directions for test
administration and procedures are included in the test
manual.
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
The PPVT (Dunn, 1959) was used to evaluate hearing
vocabulary of standard English. The testing procedure
consisted of picture selection in response to spoken
vocabulary words arranged in increasing difficulty.
Specific directions for test administration and proce
dures are included in the test manual. The raw score can
be converted into standard score equivalents of mental
age (M.A.), intelligence quotient (I.Q,), and percentile
(%ile) (Dunn, 1959).
Test A(3ministration
All testing and scoring was done according to the
test manual by one examiner. The same procedure was
employed for all testing; the PPVT was a(aministered first
13
followed by the NSST. Approximately 20 minutes per child
was required to administer both tests.
Analysis of the Data
The 84 subjects included in the study were divided
into eight groups. These were:
White, middle class, rural 16 White, middle class, urban 10 White, lower class, rural 10 White, lower class, urban 8
Black, middle class, rural 6 Black, middle class, urban 10 Black, lower class, rural 10 Black, lower class, urban ]-4_
84
In analyzing the data, each group was transformed
into ten subjects per group. Ten subjects were randomly
selected from the 16 White, middle class, rural subjects;
and ten subjects were randomly selected from the 14 Black,
lower class, urban subjects. In estimating the unknown
data from the eight White, lower class, urban group, the
mean score was computed and added twice to the eight known
scores for a total of ten in that group. The same procedure
was used for the Black, middle class, rural group. The mean
score was computed and added four times to the six known
scores for a total of ten in that group.
The data was then statistically analyzed using an
analysis of variance (ANOVA), random groups design. The
factors were ethnic group (Black and Anglo), socio-economic
14
group (lower and middle), and geographical location (urban
and rural). The values used in the analysis were the
receptive and expressive subtest raw scores of the NSST
and the receptive vocabulary raw scores of the PPVT. A
predetermined five per cent level of confidence was chosen
as the level of significance necessary for this study.
CHAPTER III
RESULTS
The results of the analysis of variance, random groups
design, will be found in this chapter. Tables are included
which summarize the statistical analysis and will aid in
interpretation and explanation of the findings.
Analysis of Variance of the Receptive Subtest of the NSST
Table 1 summarizes the results of the analysis of
variance of the raw scores obtained on the receptive sub
test of the NSST, No statistically significant differences
between the groups were found on this subtest at the pre
determined 5 per cent level of confidence,
TABLE 1
SUMMARY OF THE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF THE RECEPTIVE SUBTEST OF THE NSST
Source of Variation
Between Groups 118,79 7 16,97 2.04
Within Groups
Total
Sum of Squares
118.
590.
709.
.79
.40
.19
df
7
72
79
Mean Square
16,
8.
97
20
Analysis of Variance of the Expressive Subtest of the NSST
Table 2 summarizes the results of the analysis of
15
16
variance of the raw scores obtained on the expressive sub
test of the NSST, Statistically significant differences
were found between the scores of the racial groups at the
predetermined 5 per cent level of confidence. No other
statistically significant differences between groups were
found on this subtest.
TABLE 2
SUMMARY OF THE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF THE EXPRESSIVE SUBTEST OF THE NSST
Source of Variation
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
384.30
1,166.89 72
1,551.19 79
54.90
16.21
3.39*
Intermediate Table
1 (race)
2 (socio-economic)
3 (area)
12
13
23
123
Within Groups
Total
308.11
27.61
10.51
0,11
308,11
27,61
10,51
0,11
19,01*
1.70
0.64
0.006
0,01
35.11
2.82
1,166.89
1,551.19
1
1
1
72
79
0,01
35.11
2,82
16,21
0,0006
2.17
0.17
*Significant at .05 level
17
Analysis of Variance of the PPVT
Table 3 summarizes the results of the analysis of
variance of the raw scores obtained on the PPVT. Statis
tically significant differences between means among racial
groups and socio-economic groups were found at the pre
determined 5 per cent level of confidence. No other
statistically significant differences were found in this
test.
TABLE 3
SUMMARY OF THE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE OF THE PPVT
Source of Sum of Mean Variation Squares df Square F_
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
777,68 7 111.10
2,456.70 72 34,12
3,234.38 79
3.26*
Intermediate Table
1 (race)
2 (socio-economic)
3 (area)
12
13
23
123
Within Groups
Total
391,61
165.31
66.61
7.81
13.61
132.61
0.11
2,456,69
3,234.38
72
79
391.61
165.31
66.61
7.81
13.61
132.61
0.11
34.12
11.48*
4.84*
1,95
0.22
0.39
3.87
0.003
•Significant at ,05 level
19
statistically significant differences in the language skills
of middle socio-economic class children and lower socio
economic class children as judged by a comparison of their
performance on the NSST and the PPVT is rejected. The
null hypothesis that there are no statistically significant
differences in the language skills of children from rural
communities of Texas and urban communities of Texas as
judged by a comparison of their performance on the NSST
and the PPVT cannot be rejected.
CHAPTER IV
DISCUSSION
The results indicated statistically significant
differences between means among racial groups on the raw
scores of the expressive subtest of the NSST and on the
raw scores of the PPVT. Furthermore, the results indi
cated statistically significant differences between means
among socio-economic groups on the raw scores of the PPVT.
Racial Groups
The results indicated that the Black subjects scored
significantly below the White subjects on both the
expressive subtest of the NSST and on the PPVT, This
finding is in agreement with the majority of studies in
the literature (Rieber and Womack, 1968; Mok and Howard,
1972; Butts, 1970; the Westinghouse study, 1969; Carson
and Rabin, 1960),
Socio-Economic Groups
The statistical analysis also showed that the middle
class groups were superior to the lower class groups on the
PPVT. Although the majority of the literature supports
this finding, most of the studies find statistical inter
action between racial groups and socio-economic levels
(Williams and Naremore, 1969; Osser, 1966; Butts, 1970;
Blackburn, 1970), However, in the present study, no such
20
21
interaction was found—that is, the lower socio-economic
Black group did not score significantly lower than the
lower socio-economic White group.
Geographical Location
Although not statistically significant, the means of
the two levels, rural and inner city, were found to be
different. The rural groups scored higher than the inner
city groups on both the NSST and the PPVT (see Table 4).
With regard to geographical location, the examiner
believes that San Antonio was a good area for selection of
the urban sample. However, Plainview was not the best area
for selection of the rural sample. This town is quite
integrated in housing and although there is a large propor
tion of Blacks, the examiner believes that Plainview is
not representative of rural Black culture. For example.
East Texas Black communities are far more segregated from
the town than the Black communities in West Texas, Many
of the schools in East Texas are relatively segregated and
are lacking adequate facilities and teachers. The Black
children attending such schools are not exposed to an
abundance of reading material, audio-visual equipment,
experimental settings, or a wholesome environment. They
generally live in poor houses on dirt roads several miles
from the town. Their schools are overcrowded and old, and
their teachers are frequently uncertified volunteers.
22
The Black children in West Texas may live in Black
communities but these districts are located in the town
itself. They attend relatively integrated public schools
where the teachers are certified professionals, usually
White, standard English speakers. It is the belief of this
examiner that there are several different rural Black
cultures in Texas and that future studies should include
a sample from the East Texas Black population as well as
a sample from the Texas Panhandle.
Selection of Subjects
Originally, the selection of subjects was to be
determined by Hollingshead's (1965) Two Factor Index of
Social Position. Based on this index, the investigator
requested the following information from each school
district: occupation and amount of education of the
father, occupation and amount of education of the mother,
and enrollment in the free lunch program. However, many
of the school records did not contain this information or
the records were incomplete. The only useful information
that was readily available regarding socio-economic groups
was entrance in the free lunch program.
Selection of subjects for this study included entrance
in the free lunch program for the lower socio-economic
group, and non-entrance for the middle socio-economic
group. The investigator used this criterion because it
23
was the only information available in the schools. How
ever, the investigator did not believe that the school
lunch program was a good criterion in several instances.
For example, the urban population was drawn from San
Antonio, It was extremely difficult to find lower socio
economic White subjects. The school administrators said
that there was a lower socio-economic White population in
the district but that these families would not accept
government aid. Therefore, their children were not enrolled
in the school lunch program. The case was just the opposite
in Plainview from where the rural sample was selected. In
Plainview it was difficult to find middle socio-economic
Black subjects. For example, both parents might be employed
and, making middle class incomes; however, because the
school as a whole was a(3ministered the free lunch program
these Black subjects were classified in the lower socio
economic category. The investigator believes that future
studies should develop better criteria for classifying
socio-economic groups.
Discussion of the Test Instrument
The standardizing procedure of most language tests
include standard English, Northern, urban. White, and middle
class biases. The present investigator believes that
because the NSST and the PPVT were standardized according
to these procedures, they are not good instruments in
24
diagnosing language pathologies of Black and/or lower
socio-economic children. This study and many of the studies
previously cited imply that the culturally disadvantaged
child has less language than the middle class child and
that his language is pathologically deviant. It is impor
tant to note that the studies, including this study, use
standard English as the criterion of adequate language.
The material used in the NSST and the PPVT, the experimental
setting, and the interaction with examiners are experiences
that are much more familiar to the White middle class
child than to the lower class Black child. Culturally
disadvantaged children do not usually have access to
picture books, attentive adults, or good standard English
speaking models,
Baratz (1969) states that there are two dialects
involved in the educational complex of Black children.
She believes that Black children are generally not bi-
dialectal and that there is evidence of interference from
their dialect when Black children attempt to use standard
English. Furthermore, she believes that language assess
ment of disadvantaged Negro children must involve measures
of their knowledge of nonstandard English as well as
additional measures of their knowledge of standard English.
The NSST and the PPVT serve well to assess knowledge of
standard English but tells little about their knowledge of
25
nonstandard English. According to Adler (1971), when
differences are noted, the nonstandard speaker has been
considered deviant, abnormal and deficient. The clinician
often feels that he necessitates the consideration of
remediation and treatment.
In the absence of appropriate normative data, Taylor
(1971) contends that we know little about what constitutes
a language pathology for Blacks and that we know even less
about their norms at various ages during childhood. Much
work is needed in the area of developing appropriate
normative data and valid testing instruments based on
Black culture. A few individuals have already started to
standardize for Black children widely used tests such as
the NSST and PPVT, the Tempiin-Darley Tests of Articulation,
the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation, the McDonald
Screening Deep Test of Articulation, and the Wepman
Auditory Discrimination Test, Although these tests can
measure knowledge of standard English, future studies should
also include measures of knowledge of nonstandard English,
Implications for Therapy
The investigator suggests the following measures be
adopted when working with Black children:
1) Appropriate normative data and testing measures should
be devised in order to diagnose legitimate language
pathologies in Black children.
26
2) The speech pathologist must be familiar with the non
standard phonological, syntactical, and lexical
components of the speaker's speech and language
patterns. He must be able to communicate with his
client even when the client uses nonstandard dialect.
3) Therapy should coincide with the child's already
established cultural and linguistic pattern making
the clinician's work with the child more meaningful and
effective.
4) The emphasis of therapy should shift from receptive
language to expressive language and oral communication,
5) Standard English should be taught as a second language,
teaching standard English to dialectal speakers as
well as remediating the defective speech of dialectal
speakers where such defective speech exists.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The following chapter is a resume of the present
study. It includes the purpose, procedure, results, and
conclusions.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether
Black and Anglo children in Texas from the same socio
economic group differed in language abilities as measured
by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the
Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST), The following
null hypotheses were proposed. There are no statistically
significant differences in the language skills of Black
and Anglo children as judged by a comparison of their
performance on the NSST and the PPVT. There are no sta
tistically significant differences in the language skills
of middle socio-economic class children and lower socio
economic class children as judged by a comparison of their
performance on the NSST and the PPVT. There are no statis
tically significant differences in the language skills of
children from rural communities of Texas and urban communi
ties of Texas as judged by a comparison of their performance
on the NSST and the PPVT.
27
28
Procedure
A total of 84 children, 40 Black and 44 Anglo, who
exhibited normal intelligence, had normal hearing, had
never been enrolled in speech therapy, were in the second
grade, and under nine years of age were the subjects of
this study. The subjects were selected from three schools
in South Texas and six schools in the Texas Panhandle.
The criterion used in determining socio-economic status
was entrance into the federally administered free lunch
program for the low socio-economic group and non-entrance
for the middle socio-economic group.
The NSST was administered individually to all subjects
and was used to evaluate language ability. The PPVT was
also a(aministered individually to all subjects and was
used to evaluate hearing vocabulary of standard English.
All testing and scoring was done by one examiner. The
data from the study was statistically analyzed using and
analysis of variance, random groups design.
Results
Differences between means among the two racial groups
and the two socio-economic groups were found to be statis
tically significant. The difference between the means of
the urban and rural groups was found not to be statistically
significant at the predetermined 5 per cent level of
significance.
29
The null hypothesis that there are no statistically
significant differences in the language skills of Black and
Anglo children as judged by a comparison of their perform
ance on the NSST and the PPVT was rejected. The null
hypothesis that there are no statistically significant
differences in the language skills of the middle socio
economic class children and lower socio-economic class
children as judged by a comparison of their performance on
the NSST and the PPVT was rejected. The null hypothesis
that there are no statistically significant differences
in the language skills of children from rural communities
of Texas and urban communities of Texas as judged by a
comparison of their performance on the NSST and the PPVT
could not be rejected.
Conclusions
Judging from the results of this study, the following
conclusions are suggested:
1) Black children perform poorer than Anglo children on
the expressive subtest of the NSST and PPVT.
2) Lower socio-economic class children perform signifi
cantly poorer than middle socio-economic class children
on the PPVT,
3) Predictions concerning the language performance of a
child from any part of Texas cannot be made unless
one knows the particular racial group and
30
socio-economic level of the child.
4) More research is needed in the area of language
assessment of disadvantaged Black children. Such
research should include measures of their knowledge
of nonstandard English as well as additional measures
of their knowledge of standard English.
REFERENCES
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Bauman, R. "An Ethnographic Framework for the Investigation of Communicative Behaviors," ASHA Journal, Volume 13, Number 6, 1971, pp. 334-340,
Blackburn, V. L. A Comparison of the Expressive Grammatical Patterns of Three Groups of Black Children from Different Environments. Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of Tennessee, August, 1970.
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Dillard, J. L. Black English; Its History and Usage in the United States. New York: Random House, 1972.
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Hollingshead, A, B, Two Factor Index of Social Position. Connecticut: Yale Station, 1965.
Lee, L. L. "A Screening Test for Syntax Development," Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, Volume 35, Number 2, 1970, pp. 103-112.
31
32
McGurk, F. C. J. "On White and Negro Test Performance and Socio-economic Factors," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 48, Number 3, 1953, pp. 440-450.
Mok, C , and Howard, M. J. An Investigation of Specific Grammatical Abilities in Children From Varying Socio-Economic and Ethnic Backgrounds. Paper presented at the American Speech and Hearing Association Annual Convention, 1972.
Osser, H. The Syntactic Structures of 5-Year-Old Culturally Deprived Children. Paper read at the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, April, 1966.
Raph, J, B. "Language and Speech Deficits in Culturally Disadvantaged Children: Implications for the Speech Clinician," Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, Volume 32, Number 3, 1967, pp. 203-214.
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Thomas, D. R, "Oral Language, Sentence Structure, and Vocabulary of Kindergarten Children Living in Low Socioeconomic Urban Areas," Dissertation Abstracts, Volume 23, Number 3, 1962, p. 1014.
33
Westinghouse Learning Corporation and Ohio University. The Impact of Head Start, 1969.
Williams, F., and Naremore, R. C. "Social Class Differences in Children's Syntactic Performance: A Quantitative Analysis of Field Study Data," Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, Volume 12, Number 4, 1959, pp. 778-793,
Wolfram, W. Some Predicted Dialectal Interference in Selected Language Development Tests. Paper presented at the American Speech and Hearing Association Annual Convention, 1972, pp. 1-5.
Wolfram, W,; Williams, R.; and Taylor, O. Dialectal Bias of Language Assessment Instruments. A Short Course presented at the American Speech and Hearing Association Annual Convention, 1972.
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