Craig Holly K, Zhang Lingling, Hensel Stephanie L, Quinn Erin J
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2009 Aug;52(4):839-55. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0056).
In this study, the authors evaluated the contribution made by dialect shifting to reading achievement test scores of African American English (AAE)-speaking students when controlling for the effects of socioeconomic status (SES), general oral language abilities, and writing skills.
Participants were 165 typically developing African American 1st through 5th graders. Half were male and half were female, one third were from low-SES homes, and two-thirds were from middle-SES homes. Dialect shifting away from AAE toward Standard American English (SAE) was determined by comparing AAE production rates during oral and written narratives. Structural equation modeling evaluated the relative contributions of AAE rates, SES, and general oral language and writing skills on standardized reading achievement scores.
AAE production rates were inversely related to reading achievement scores and decreased significantly between the oral and written narratives. Lower rates in writing predicted a substantial amount of the variance in reading scores, showing a significant direct effect and a significant indirect effect mediated by measures of oral language comprehension.
The findings support a dialect shifting-reading achievement hypothesis, which proposes that AAE-speaking students who learn to use SAE in literacy tasks will outperform their peers who do not make this linguistic adaptation.
在本研究中，作者评估了在控制社会经济地位（SES）、一般口语能力和写作技能的影响时，方言转换对说非裔美国英语（AAE）学生阅读成绩测试分数的贡献。
参与者为165名发育正常的非裔美国一至五年级学生。一半为男性，一半为女性，三分之一来自低社会经济地位家庭，三分之二来自中等社会经济地位家庭。通过比较口头和书面叙述中的AAE使用率来确定从AAE向标准美国英语（SAE）的方言转换。结构方程模型评估了AAE使用率、SES、一般口语和写作技能对标准化阅读成绩分数的相对贡献。
AAE使用率与阅读成绩分数呈负相关，且在口头和书面叙述之间显著下降。写作中较低的使用率预测了阅读分数的大量方差，显示出显著的直接效应和由口语理解测量介导的显著间接效应。
研究结果支持方言转换-阅读成绩假说，该假说提出，在读写任务中学会使用SAE的说AAE的学生将比未进行这种语言适应的同龄人表现更好。
