THE RELATIONSHIP OF SUCH KNOWLEDGE TO THE

Evidence seems to suggest that children whosedialects are nonstandard generally produce compositions consideredlower in quality than those produced by middle and upper-middle class children. The focus of this study, therefore, was to examine the relationship between children's knowledge of the structure of theirlanguage and their judged ability to ure language effectively in composition. Eight classes of sixth grade students (representing Caucasian and black, and lower and middle class) were administered the Linguistic Ability Measurement Program (LAMP), since it provides an effective means of assessing pupils ' knowledge of the operation oftheir language. Writing samples (a theme, a story, and a poem) were then collected under conditions as uniform and as controlled as waspossible. Seven judges were asked to rate the composition samples through an application of objective criteria. An analysis of the data revealed that middle class pupils, Caucasian pupils, and girls scored significantly higher on all measures and that therms- was a greater correlation between test scores and composition ratings for middle class subjects than for lower class subjects. (IS) Lf