Written Communication Oct 1992 Open Access

Cultural Preference and the Expository Writing of African-American Adolescents

ARNETHA F. BALL

Abstract

Research by linguists and educators confirms the observation that aspects of the African-American experience are reflected in the grammatical, phonological, lexical, and stylistic features of African-American English and in the patterns of language use, including narrative, found in African-American speech communities. This study goes beyond prior research to investigate and characterize what Hymes refers to as the preferred patterns for the “organization of experience” among African-American adolescents. The results of the study revealed that, although subjects from several ethnic backgrounds stated a preference for using vernacular-based organizational patterns in informal oral exposition, African-American adolescents, in contrast to a group of Hispanic-American, Asian-American, and European-American adolescents, reported a strong preference for using vernacular-based patterns in academic writing tasks as they got older. These findings suggest that the organization of expository discourse is affected by cultural preference and years of schooling and that preference for organizational patterns can be viewed as an obstacle to or as a resource in successful literacy-related experiences.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1992-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088392009004003
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Topics
discourse analysis literacy studies race and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Eodice et al. (2019)
    The Power of Personal Connection for Undergraduate Student Writers
    Research in the Teaching of English
  2. Syrquin (2006)
    Registers in the Academic Writing of African American College Students
    Written Communication
  3. Chambliss et al. (2003)
    Fourth Graders Composing Scientific Explanations About the Effects of Pollutant…
    Written Communication
  4. Ball (1997)
    Expanding the dialogue on culture as a critical component when assessing writing
    Assessing Writing

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