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THE INTERACTION OF DIALECT AND STYLE IN URBAN AMERICAN ENGLISH 1
Author(s) -
Arthur Bradford
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1971.tb00055.x
Subject(s) - psychology , style (visual arts) , friendship , linguistics , variation (astronomy) , north american english , ethnic group , natural (archaeology) , sociology , social psychology , history , philosophy , physics , archaeology , formant , vowel , astrophysics , anthropology
The largely unexplained relationship between stylistic variation and dialect differentiation in urban American English is discussed in terms of five current assumptions made by socio‐linguists in recent years. Implications of such assumptions are drawn for language use and language development in inner city schools. Three general guidelines emerge: (i) it is desirable for teachers to encourage the natural development of more formal dialect variants for all of their students with full acceptance of the validity of the less formal dialects that all children use; (ii) teachers should be trained to understand and to accept the informal styles used by all of the students they encounter; and (iii) urban Americans should be encouraged to recognize the emergence of dialect differences in inter‐ethnic communication for what they, in fact, are: an indication of developing friendship and informality.