Mims H A, Camden C T
J Speech Hear Disord. 1986 Feb;51(1):42-52. doi: 10.1044/jshd.5101.42.
This study investigated whether Nonstandard English (NSE) dialect responses to an examiner-constructed sentence completion test were congruent with and predictive of use of NSE during spontaneous conversation. The sentence completion test was designed to evoke either NSE or Standard English (SE) dialect variants of four grammatical forms for which the NSE dialect variants are highly stigmatized. The 76 Black male subjects were between the ages of 15:8 and 23:5 years. The grammatical forms assessed were verb-subject agreement third person singular, negative concord, possessive suffix, and continuative be. A low but statistically significant correlation was found between the percentage of NSE usage on the test and during conversation when all four grammatical forms were combined (r = .2344, p less than .05). Only the possessive suffix form showed a statistically significant correlation between the two measures when correlations were computed for individual grammatical forms (r = .4341, p less than .05). Thus, congruency was interpreted to be highly variable and dependent on the particular grammatical form. To measure predictability, data were inspected for each grammatical form to determine the percentage of subjects who used at least one NSE dialect variant for sentence completion test items when at least one NSE variant of that form occurred during spontaneous conversation. Responses to the sentence completion test were predictive of NSE during conversation for more than 90% of the subjects only for the negative concord grammatical form. It was concluded that the sentence completion test is satisfactorily congruent with and predictive of patterns of dialect used in spontaneous conversation only for certain specific grammatical forms. Some possible reasons for these variable results and their implications for second dialect assessment are offered.
本研究调查了非标准英语（NSE）方言对考官编制的句子完成测试的反应，是否与自发对话中NSE的使用一致并具有预测性。句子完成测试旨在引出四种语法形式的NSE或标准英语（SE）方言变体，其中NSE方言变体受到高度 stigmatized。76名黑人男性受试者年龄在15岁8个月至23岁5个月之间。评估的语法形式包括第三人称单数的主谓一致、否定一致、所有格后缀和持续系动词be。当将所有四种语法形式合并时，测试中NSE使用的百分比与对话期间的NSE使用百分比之间存在低但具有统计学意义的相关性（r = 0.2344，p小于0.05）。当针对单个语法形式计算相关性时，只有所有格后缀形式在这两项测量之间显示出统计学意义的相关性（r = 0.4341，p小于0.05）。因此，一致性被解释为高度可变的，并且取决于特定的语法形式。为了衡量预测性，检查了每种语法形式的数据，以确定在自发对话中出现该形式的至少一个NSE变体时，在句子完成测试项目中使用至少一个NSE方言变体的受试者百分比。对于超过90%的受试者，只有在否定一致语法形式的情况下，句子完成测试的反应才能够预测对话中的NSE。得出的结论是，句子完成测试仅对于某些特定的语法形式，与自发对话中使用的方言模式具有令人满意的一致性和预测性。文中提供了这些可变结果的一些可能原因及其对第二方言评估的影响。
