Elicited Imitation of Selected Features of Two American English Dialects in Head Start Children

Three measures were used to check the bidialectal imitative facility of 100 black, white, and Spanish-speaking Head Start children. In general, blacks and Spanish-speaking subjects performed more accurately on black English markers than on Standard English markers and whites, the reverse. When the children did make an error on the feature marker they usually substituted the opposing dialectal marker. Blacks and Spanish-speaking subjects were more apt to be accurate on the total sentence when it was given in black English. Several explanations are offered for group similarities and differences.