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

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).