ABSTRACT
The role of language in the performance of African-American children has been of concern in the social sciences for several decades. However, the bulk of the research has been concerned with form-related aspects (e.g., Bereiter & Engelmann, 1966; Blank & Solomon, 1968; see Baratz, 1973), rather than more recent issues in child language, which focus on how children acquire and learn to use forms in culturally appropriate ways (e.g., Heath, 1983; Miller, 1982; Miller & Garvey, 1984; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986). Even though language-socialization research is cataloging some distinctive relationships between language components and specific cultural experiences, the persistently poor performance of African-American children in school settings continues to stimulate studies that use a Black-White comparative, experimental model (McLoyd, 1990; Myers, Rana, & Harris, 1979; Washington & McLoyd, 1982). This research seeks to identify those areas where the language behavior of African-American children is structurally different from that of mainstream Euro-American children. As in the past, current research continues to approach the language skills of minority children from a restricted use or a production-deficiency perspective (see Feagans & Farran, 1982; McLoyd, 1990; Tizard & Hughes, 1984). The deficiency is purported to arise directly from language due to limited forms and structures present in the speech of adult models (e.g., Hart, 1982; Tough, 1982), or indirectly because of an inadequate knowledge base resulting from limited experiences with the world (e.g., Snow, 1982). Accordingly, the implications support the need for remedial intervention that provides African-American children with experiences that imitate those of mainstream Euro-American children.
