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Semin Speech Lang
DOI: 10.1055/a-2763-2728
Research Article: Pediatric

Relationship Between Measures of Dialect and Teacher Ratings of Student Language Ability

Authors

  • Franchesca M. Arecy

    1   Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo, Main Street, Buffalo, New York

  • Alison Eisel Hendricks

    1   Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo, Main Street, Buffalo, New York

Funding Information This work utilized data previously collected as part of grants from NIH/NIDCD R21DC018355 (PI: A.E.H.) and a New Investigator Grant from the American Speech Language Hearing Foundation (PI: A.E.H.), which made this study possible. Supplemental fellowship support was provided to the first author by the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship and the Western New York Prosperity Fellowship.
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Abstract

Background

Students who speak African American English are typically rated lower in language and literacy ability than students who speak General American English. When this happens, it can lead to higher referral rates for evaluations for speech and language disorders and a mischaracterization of academic ability due to linguistic biases. This study explores how teacher ratings of student language and literacy ability are influenced by student dialect use.

Method

Teachers completed a questionnaire about students' language and literacy skills. Two measures of student dialect use were computed from student language samples: percent dialect density and a listener judgment task. Linear regressions were conducted to determine the predictive effects of dialect density and listener judgments on teacher ratings. Given that there were significant differences in teacher ratings across grade levels, analyses controlled for student grade.

Results

Across two measures of dialect, results suggested that student dialect use did not significantly influence teacher ratings of language and literacy skills when controlling for student grade.

Conclusion

The results suggest that factors other than student dialect use may influence teacher ratings. Future research should consider both student-level variables (e.g., socio-economic status) and teacher-level variables (e.g., training and exposure to language variation).

Keywords

African American English - General American English - Nonmainstream American English - student dialect use - teacher perspectives


Publication History

Received: 08 April 2025

Accepted: 03 December 2025

Article published online:
16 January 2026

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