Differentiating dialect from disorder - A comparison of two processing tasks and a standardized language test

Previous research has indicated that norm-referenced language assessment pr otocols are often biased against dialectal speakers. Recently, the use of p rocessing tasks has emerged as one possible means of reducing this bias in language testing. Processing tasks measure a child's ability to process and manipulate language rather than tap previous linguistic knowledge. The pre sent study utilized 40 subjects between the ages of 7;0 and 7;3 in the foll owing equal groupings: White normal language, White language impaired, Afri can American normal language, African American language impaired. The subje cts were administered the Test of Language Development-2P (TOLD-2P), the No nword Repetition Task (NRT), and the Competing Language Processing Task (CL PT). Results indicated that all three measures differentiated normal-langua ge and language-impaired subjects from one another. With regard to cultural group, confirmed speakers of African American English (AAE) with normal la nguage scored significantly lower on the TOLD-2P compared to White normal-l anguage subjects. Scores of the AAE-speaking subjects with normal language on the NRT and CLPT, however, did not differ significantly from the White n ormal-language subjects. These results suggest that AAE speakers with norma lly developing language (LN) may be at a disadvantage on tests of prior lan guage knowledge and that processing tasks may be a useful tool in combinati on with other assessment measures to make less biased clinical decisions. E ducational objectives: As a result of this activity, the reader will (1) be able to determine the utility of processing tasks in culturally unbiased l anguage assessment. (2) The reader will be able to discriminate the differe nce between the results of a standardized language test and processing task s on speakers of AAE. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.