Preliminary research for innovative assessments valid for both African American English- and Mainstream American English-speaking children suggested a process consisting of two separate tests: (1) a screening test, and (2) a comprehensive test of Syntax, Pragmatics, Semantics, and Phonology. Language probes were designed to accomplish the functions of dialect identification, using highly contrastive features between the dialects, and diagnosis of disorder, which uses noncontrastive elements. The resulting assessment/proposal, which has undergone extensive experimental field testing, differs from existing tests at the level of its individual items and in the process of test construction as a whole.
KEYWORDS
Dialect identification - diagnostic risk - language domains - dialect-neutral - dialect sensitive
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Barbara Zurer PearsonPh.D.
Department of Communication Disorders, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003
Email: bpearson@comdis.umass.edu
