Dialect register shift in relation to community stratification: Applying linguistic capital theory

Learning to be a competent communicator entails the knowledge and skills to use effective and appropriate language across many contexts. This includes the knowledge of the various meanings attached to different social contexts as well as the knowledge of specific language structures used to navigate each of these contexts. These combined skills can be termed "register shifting". Schooling is one of the register shifting contexts in which all U.S. children are legally obligated to participate. In this context, all children learn that there is one register in which they speak to their peers and another in which they speak to their teachers. Children's ability to shift effectively from one register to another is dependent on their access to the language of instruction (i.e. linguistic capital). Typically developing children in all communities acquire those types of linguistic capital that allow them to become competent communicators within their local communities. But it is unknown whether children who speak non-mainstream English varieties have equal access to the Standard Mainstream American English (SMAE) used for school instruction (i.e. the academic register). Answering this question is important because of its implications for explaining the academic underachievement of African American children compared to other groups.; Although Socioeconomic status (SES) is often viewed as a central sociological variable in determining patterns of academic achievement and the use of nonmainstream English features, the present study brings the theory of linguistic capital to the discussion by investigating the additional sociological variable of racial-residential segregation Johanna Rose Weddle Boult (SEG) and the combined effects of SES and SEG on the register shifting skills of African American children. Register shifting is brought to the fore as one particular element of communicative competence that reflects a child's knowledge of appropriate language use. Specifically, African American children's use of selected lexical semantic items and request forms were elicited in a role playing (or "controlled improvisation") task that simulated teacher-centered and peer-centered contexts. Furthermore, participants were asked to demonstrate both receptive knowledge (through pointing tasks) and expressive knowledge (through completion of cloze tasks) of register shifting skill.; The participants were 36 third-graders selected through stratified, random sampling from four different communities within suburban Detroit: (1) High Segregation/High SES, (2) High Segregation/Low SES, (3) Low Segregation/High SES, and (4) Low Segregation/Low SES. Results indicated that African American children possess peer-centered to teacher-centered register shifting skill. Furthermore, it was found that this ability varies depending on task type and modality. Specifically, participants displayed more shifting behavior on lexical semantics task items than on politeness of request forms items. Community differences were noted in terms of the mean length of utterance and the use of address forms as alternative means of indicating shifts in expressive politeness. The results of this study have implications for research methodology, educational policy, and evaluation methods used by educators and Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs).; Keywords: register, academic register, register-shifting, code-switching, linguistic capital, dialect density, AAE, SMAE.