Effects of African American vernacular English on English Language Learners' academic writing.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of how a community dialect, in this case African American Vernacular English (AAVE), impacted language acquisition of English language learners’ (ELLs) in regard to written work. Using ten markers based on Thompson, Craig, and Washington’s (2004) examination of morphosyntactic features of AAVE, this study investigated the writing samples of high school ELLs who resided in an AAVE prevalent community in New York State. Three writing samples per student were analyzed to determine the incidence and frequency of the ten AAVE markers. Results indicated ELLs' written work was not strongly influenced by living in an AAVE speaking community, but instead, incidences of markers were more likely attributed to the influence of ELLs’ acquisition of the English language.