Summary Details
| Query: |
Summary-AAE & lg acquisition
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| Author: | CRafal CRafal | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Applied Linguistics
Language Acquisition |
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| Summary: |
Hello to all, A few weeks ago I posted an inquiry to the following effect: could readers recommend research on language acquisition by children who are coming up with African American English as their first language. From the context of writing a licensure test for beginning teachers, I was asking more specifically whether an item showing a child who used to say "went" and now said "goed" made sense in general, as well as whether it would be relevant for African American children. I have received several thoughtful and helpful replies. I would like to thank everyone who replied, listed in no particular order: Joel Boyd, Christen M. Pearson, Lisa J. Greeen, Terry Potter, Laura Wagner, Lynn Santelmann, Suzanne Kemmer (with attachment from Liz Bates), Vern Lindblad, and Maaike Verrips. I have a feeling I have forgotten someone, always a danger of listing. If so, my sincere apologies. Research and references: Currently at in the Department of Communications Disorders at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Harry Seymour (hseymour@comdis.umass.edu) and Tom Roeper (roeper@linguist.umass.edu) are working on issues related to the acquisition of African American English. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop diagnostics of language impairment that are sensitive to the different languages children may be acquiring (e.g., SAE or AAE). Wyatt, T. (1995). Language development in African-American English child speech. Linguistics and Education, 7(1), 7-22. Things written by Shirley Brice Heath aimed at educators Dr. William Labov Bill Bryson's book, "The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way" talks a little about second language acquisition in the second chapter Alan G. Kamhi, Karen E. Pollock, & Joyce L. Harris (1996). Communication Development and Disorders in African American Children: Research, Assessment, and Intervention. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Web sites: http://www.asha.org/professionals/multicultural/fact%5F4.htm http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~rickford/ebonics/ (Here I cannot resist saying this is a very good site, by an eminent and to me, dear, professor whom I was lucky enough to have as my undergrad advisor. I hope he is not embarrassed by the nave level of my query; what a decade, a career change and other factors do to one's former "expertise!" Not to mention how a field changes in that length of time!) On specific points: A couple respondents ventured that the development or acquisition of the past tense did not differ significantly between SE and AAE. There was however some disagreement on whether saying "goed" for a short time when one used to say "went" would really happen or why. Some respondents provided anecdotal evidence of young acquaintances who did do this. However, it seems that we would want to avoid implying that "goed" actually replaced "went"; Liz Bates says that these always co-exist, and 50% overgeneralization is the highest observed. She said most children will use it only about 10% to 17% of the time. She offered a different kind of anecdote: a child who never started with the rote irregular form. A few people offered explanations of these "errors" as children hypothesizing about rules. Liz Bates suggested that there it may not just be a question of "rote" vs. "rules" but that analogy may be at work here, too. These differences seem to reflect the use of different models of grammar whether as rule-based and algorithmic or as schema-based and analogical. This information has not only been helpful and thought provoking but provided an enjoyable and refreshing foray back into that first intellectual love of linguistics. Thank you all very much. Christine T. Rafal Research Associate Education Development Center Newton, MA crafal@edc.org 617/618-2766 |
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| LL Issue: | 9.1539 | |
| Date Posted: | 03-Nov-1998 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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