The Influence of Black English on Diagnosis of Reading In Learning Disabled and Normal Readers

Abstract

This study investigated the removal of black English dialect features from the error scores of three oral reading tests—the Gray Oral Reading Test, the Gilmore Oral Reading Test, and the Spache Diagnostic Reading Scales. The 40 children in the sample population (20 control children matched by age and sex with 20 children identified by the school as learning disabled) were given all three tests. Each test was scored first using test manual criteria and then rescored using those criteria but eliminating from the error count any dialect miscue. On all three tests, LD children scored lower than control children. Also, the effect of removing dialect miscues as errors caused an overall increase in reading scores on all three tests. On the Gray and Spache tests, but not on the Gilmore test, control children benefited more from the removal of dialect responses as errors than LD children. Additionally, the results indicated that dialect had a greater impact on the scores of the Gilmore than it did on the Gray and Spache tests.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Buck, C , & Goodman, K. Dialed barriers to reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 1973, 27, 6–12.

Cowart, H. , & Rystrom, R.

Black reading errors or white teacher biases?

Journal of Reading, 1972, 15, 273–276.

Cunningham, P.M. Teacher's correction responses to black dialect miscues which are non-meaning changing. Reading Research Quarterly, 1977, 12, 637–674.

Gilmore, J.V. , & Gilmore, E. Gilmore Oral Reading Test. New York: Harcourl Brace Jovanovich, 1968.

Gray, W.S. Gray Oral Reading Test. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967.

Harris, L.A. , & Smith, C.B. Reading Instruction: Diagnostic Teaching in the Classroom. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976.

Hunt, B.C. Black dialect and third and fourth graders' performance on the Gray Oral Reading Test. Reading Research Quarterly, 1974–75, 10, 103–123.

Jensen, L.J. Dialect. In P. David Allen (Ed.), eindings of Research in Miscue Analyses: Classroom Implications. Urbana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1976.

Kendall, J.R. , & Hood, J. Oral reading analysis of children with comprehension or word recognition disabilities. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 1977.

10.

(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Ed 136 316)

11.

Labov, W. Some sources of reading problems for Negro speakers ofNNE. In J.C. Baratt & R.W. Shuy (Eds.), Teaching Black Children to ‘Read. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1969.

12.

Labov, W. Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.

13.

Pflaum, S. W. Minority student language and reading acquisition. In S.W. Pflaum-Connor (Ed.), Aspects of Reading Education. Berkeley, Calif.: McMutchan, 1978.

14.

Pflaum, S.W. , & Bryan, T. Oral reading in the learning disabled. Journal of Educational Research, 1980, 73, 252–258.

15.

Rouch, P.D. Testing. In David Allen (Ed.), Findings of Research in Miscue Analysis: Classroom Implications. Urbana, III.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1976.

16.

Spache, G.D. Diagnostic Reading Scales (rev. ed.). Monterey. Calif.: McGraw-Hill, 1972.

17.

Sturdivant-Odwarka, A. Oral reading characteristics associated with the language development of second grade children. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, 1977.

18.

(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Ed 136 217).

19.

Weber, R.M. The study of oral reading errors: A survey of the literature. Reading Research Quarterly, 1968, 4, 96–119.

20.

Weber, R.M. Dialect differences in oral reading: An analysis of errors. In J.L. Laffeye & R. Shuy (Eds.), Language Differences: Do They Interfere? Newark, Del.: International Reading Association, 1973.