Effect of Segregated and Integrated Educational Settings upon Selected Dialectal Features

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a segregated educational setting versus an integrated educational setting upon selected dialectal characteristics of 60 black children in elementary school. Half of the children were selected from an all-black school and half from an integrated school. The subjects repeated 13 sentences from the Carrow Elicited Language Inventory. Instances of three commonly identified dialectal variations (zero copula, omission of /s/ and /z/ inflections, and substitution of /d/ for voiced “th”) were recorded and statistically treated through the use of an analysis of variance. Analysis indicated that in neither group of subjects was there a statistically significant decline in the presence of zero copula. However, regarding the omission of /s/ and /z/ inflections, only in the language of subjects from the integrated school was there a decrease in dialectal responses. Finally, with regard to the substitution of /d/ for voiced “th,” there was a statistically significant decline in dialectal responses for both groups of subjects. The results are discussed as they pertain to trends and important research needs in the area of social dialects, particularly black English.