dialect judgment and language development assessment

[Amy Sheldon]

Dennis Preson's work is what you want.
He describes folklinguistic assessments of dialects.
For example, he has studies of  rather consistent lay responses to the 
questions:"where is the most and least correct (or pleasant) English 
spoken in the US?".

In addition, I've found a better, more up-to-date video than American 
Tongues. I am troubled with the perspective from which African-American 
English is treated, in AT.  Jim MacNeil has updated AT with a DVD (or 
VHS) called "Do you speak American?". I've only seen parts of it -- 
it's 180 min. long. There's a section with Preston doing 
mini-interviews to show his work on dialect attitudes. Other linguists 
are featured too. Visually,  the DVD is beautiful. The underlying 
attitude of the producers is better. And the scope of dialect variation 
featured and discussed is updated. It's a good training tool.

Amy Sheldon
University of Minnesota

On Friday, September 16, 2005, at 11:45  AM, Pam Norton wrote:

>
> Hi all,
>     Can anyone direct me to literature that discusses
> laymen's or professionals' reactions to dialects other
> than their own?  I am doing background writing for my
> doctoral thesis on speech/language therapists'
> understanding of dialects and their reactions to
> dialects other than their own while conducting
> language assessments.  It would be helpful to read the
> literature on first impressions, what "other
> dialectness" means to people, and how people judge
> others according to whether they speak their own
> dialect or not.  I am a big fan of the documentary
> American Tongues but I would like to read some
> literature on the subject.  Of course, if there's
> anything about the impact of dialect on assessment
> outcome, that would be icing on the cake.  I'm happy
> to compile any references and send them back to the
> group.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Pam Norton,
> Doctoral Candidate
> UC Berkeley/San Francisco State
> Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education
>