Dispelling Myths and Examining Strategies in Teaching Non-Standard Dialect Speakers to Read.

To dispel the myths of linguistic deficiency among nonstandard English dialect speakers, evidence that repudiates these myths should be examined. These myths include suggestions that nonstandard dialects are ungrammatical and cannot be used to form concepts, and that speakers of such dialects receive little verbal stimulation as children. The result of this language impoverishment is thought to be poor performance in academic, social, and economic life. Research evidence repudiates these myths by indicating that in less formal testing situations and in natural surroundings, the monosyllabic speakers of formal test situations are actually verbally productive people. Linguists have noted that nonstandard English dialects are highly coherent, logical, and structured. Poor academic performance cannot be caused by the nonstandard dialect alone. Positive instructional techniques include recognizing dialect renditions of oral reading as high level acts of comprehension, utilizing the language experience approach as a bridge between the two dialects, and overcoming negative attitudes toward nonstandard dialects. (MKM)