THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY AND LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE (READING, STANDARDIZED TESTS, WRITING, COLLEGE FRESHMEN)

Abstract

This was a descriptive study of the relationship between patterns of the use of the verb /to be/ on a Writing Skills Assessment test and response to reading comprehension questions on the Descriptive Test of Language Skills. An ex post facto design was employed to investigate these relationships by examining the number of Black English constructions on the Writing Skills Assessment test and the number of missed items that contained selected /to be/ categories on the Descriptive Test of Language Skills.;The study population consisted of 103 Special programs college freshmen: 53 Black Students and 50 White Students. The study population was divided into three groups: White non-users of Black English, Black non-users of Black English and users of Black English. Analysis of variance was used to determine differences between the groups in performance on /to be/ items. Correlations were used to determine relationships between reading and writing.;The results of the study indicated that use of Black English was related to reading performance. However, the verb /to be/ was not a strong predictor of performance since users of Black English performed as poorly on non /to be/ test items as they did on /to be/ test items.