title: Metalinguistics, stress accuracy, and word reading: does dialect matter?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors examined the influence of demographic variables on nonmainstream American English (NMAE) use; the differences between NMAE speakers and mainstream American English (MAE) speakers on measures of metalinguistics, single-word reading, and a new measure of morphophonology; and the differences between the 2 groups in the relationships among the measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were typically developing 3rd graders from Memphis, TN, including 21 MAE and 21 NMAE speakers. Children received a battery of tests measuring phonological and morphological awareness (PA and MA), morphophonology (i.e., accurately produced lexical stress in derived words), decoding, and word identification (WID).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Controlling for socioeconomic status, measures of PA, decoding, and WID were higher for MAE than for NMAE speakers. There was no difference in stress accuracy between the dialect groups. Only for the NMAE group were PA and MA significantly related to decoding and WID. Stress accuracy was correlated with word reading for the NMAE speakers and with all measures for the MAE speakers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Stress accuracy was consistently related to reading measures, even when PA and MA were not. Morphophonology involving suprasegmental factors may be an area of convergence between language varieties because of its consistent relationship to word reading.
authors.affiliation: The University of Memphis, TN, USA. ljrmlwcz@memphis.edu
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jarmulowicz
authors.forename: Valentina L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Taran
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seek
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics / Q000193:education*; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires