READING COMPREHENSION AMONG BLACK AMERICAN ENGLISH SPEAKERS IN BLACK AMERICAN ENGLISH AND STANDARD AMERICAN ENGLISH

This study was designed to test two hypotheses. The first hypothesis stated that subjects who received prior training in the reading of Black American English literary material would comprehend more when passages and questions were written in Black American English than subjects who received no prior training in reading Black American English literary materials. The second hypothesis stated that subjects would comprehend more when passages and questions were written in Black American English than when passages and questions were written in Standard American English.;The sample consisted of New York City black incarcerated youths ranging in age from sixteen to twenty years with an average educational level of approximately ten years. Background variables gathered on all subjects consisted of age, years of formal schooling, and time lived in New York City. Home addresses of subjects were also examined to ascertain general socioeconomic level.;One group of subjects (experimental group) was selected to undergo training in the reading of diverse literary materials in Black American English for five hours prior to comprehension testing. Subjects comprising a second group (control group) were matched individually with subjects in the experimental group on age and educational level. No training with dialect materials was given to control group subjects.;Following the training period, forty subjects from the experimental group were randomly assigned to one of the four following treatment groups which identifies the passage and question condition subjects were assigned to: Black American English Passage/Black American English Question, Black American English Passage/Standard American English Question, Standard American English Passage/Standard American English Question, Standard American English Passage/Black American English Question. Forty control group matched subjects were assigned to the same four passage and question treatments.;Four linguistically equivalent and parallel reading comprehension test forms were developed in Black American English and Standard American English. Test forms consisted of six passages adapted from the STEP Listening Comprehension Test, 3B, and one Biblical passage. Previous use of the material assured the linguistic equivalence of the forms.;A split-plot factorial analysis of variance (matched subjects) revealed no statistically significant main or interaction effects. However, treatment effects of approximately three-tenths and one-half of a standard deviation were found for educationally relevant subgroups. Supplementary post-hoc analyses of variance revealed a significant main effect for educational level in each treatment group and for the total sample.;A replication of the study for a larger sample size with subgroups tested entirely in Black American English and Standard American English only with a more liberal time limit was suggested. Studies investigating whether dialect materials would benefit a younger age group including females as well as longitudinal studies investigating the teaching of reading to disadvantaged black children with Black American English texts were also suggested.