23rd Annual Student Research Conference
The Dialect is Just a Difference: Speech- Language Pathologists and Issues Assessing African American Vernacular English
Jade N. Hicks
Dr. Janet Gooch, Faculty Mentor
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a multicultural dialect of Standard American English. Speech- Language Pathologists who lack experience with AAVE dialect may be at risk for misdiagnosing clients who speak the dialect. This study explored whether increased exposure to clients who speak AAVE affected the transcription skills of graduate level Communication Disorders students. The participants were graduate students, from Truman State University and Rockhurst University, located in Kansas City, Missouri. The transcriptions of students from both schools were compared to a key to determine the accuracy of each transcription. A difference in the number of phonemes transcribed correctly between the two groups was determined using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results revealed that graduate students receiving training ay Truman State were more accurate in their transcription than those receiving training at Rockhurst. Factors affecting transcription other than exposure to AAVE likely accounted for differences between the two groups.
Keywords: dialect, transcription, African American English, Speech-Language Pathology
Topic(s):Communication Disorders
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 11-1
Location: VH 1236
Time: 8:00