A review of the literature on the language of working-class Black children revealed that only a small subset of this research has focused on the acquisition and development of linguistic knowledge. Consequently major gaps exist in what is known about the linguistic abilities of these children. In an attempt to narrow these gaps, a team of researchers has initiated a large scale longitudinal and cross-sectional study of the acquisition of language by working-class Black children at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D. C. This paper will present a detailed description of the Center study. It will also critically evaluate existing research on the linguistic abilities of working-class Black children and its impact on language acquisition studies focusing on this population. The evaluation reveals that a new framework for analyzing the language of working-class Black children should be selected. The theory and methodology of the new framework are described.
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