EAGER: Collaborative Research: Variation and the Grammar of Child African American English

Jackson State University, Jackson MS

Investigators

Abstract

The variation of language dialects has been primarily studied for adult speech. A growing literature is looking at the development of these dialects by focusing on children's usage. One reason this is important is because accurate understanding of a dialect and its acquisition and development are needed to identify typical linguistic patterns and when patterns are indicative of a language disorder. Collaborations between experts in linguistics and communication disorders have the potential to answer questions about developing patterns in children in dialects where adults use variable forms, and where the stages of development of acquisition are not yet clearly described and analyzed. This project will collect developmental data on the acquisition of a particular dialect to fill in gaps in the literature about stages of development of the acquisition of variable forms, information that is not available for the child variety of the dialect. Broader impacts include the usefulness of findings for the development of more culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools, leading to more accurate assessment outcomes for children who speak this dialect, the involvement in undergraduate research by underrepresented groups, and the strengthening of a research collaboration between two institutions, one a historically black college (HBCU). The activities will provide undergraduate students with background and analytical skills that are applicable to STEM-related fields, such as linguistics and computation. This project is a collaboration between researchers from Jackson State University (an HBCU) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to investigate developing patterns in morphological marking on verbs in African American English (AAE). Systematic variation in African American English (AAE) has been addressed in research on the variety; however, there remains a blurred line of demarcation between typical developmental language variation and language disorder in younger AAE speakers. This study builds on previous descriptions of child AAE, and it applies quantitative analysis and mechanisms in current syntactic theory to empirical data in investigating the connection between morphological marking and the instantiation of [Tense] and [Agreement] in child AAE. Specifically, the project will analyze verbs in past tense contexts and in 3rd person singular non-past contexts child AAE. The data and results will bear directly on the acquisition path of morphological marking (e.g., 3rd singular -s and forms of past such as -ed) on verbs in that it will fill gaps in the literature about stages of development of the acquisition of variable forms, information that is not available for child AAE. Findings of the project will be used to describe how normal variation associated with child AAE is systematically different from disordered language. Findings will be useful in the development of more culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools, leading to more accurate assessment outcomes for AAE-speaking children. A better understanding of the AAE linguistic system will be useful in addressing longstanding questions that remain unanswered about the interaction of AAE and the acquisition of literacy and other language-based academic subjects, such as math and science, and should ultimately lead to more positive educational opportunities for children who speak AAE.