ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the social influences deriving from permanent long-term factors. The distribution of African American English (AAE) features can be highly variable among students and also within individual students when their discourse is examined over time and across different settings. Theoretically, the homogeneity in location and type of school would increase the likelihood of us identifying consistent patterns across students by eliminating effects of potentially confounding variables related to differences in learning communities. Amounts of AAE feature production also varied systematically relative to the speaker's highest level of academic achievement. Developmental influences, especially maturation of various cognitive principles, relate to the types of features produced, and the ways in which features change over time. Socio-demographic variables, particularly socioeconomic status, gender, residence in specific geographical regions and local communities, and level of educational achievement are important determiners of AAE feature production.
