PUB DATE [75]

The need to find which social contexts elicit childrenes fullest language repertoire generated this study of the effects of three social distance variables on language production, as measured by seen length of connunication unit, vocabulary diversity, and use of black English. 2be social distance variables investigated included race and sex of adult questioners, socioeconomic status of adult questionexs, and socioecononic status of subjects. The Semantic Differential Scale of social Distance (SDSD), an original measurement instrument, was adninistered to 48 black, sixth-grade males from two socioeconomic groups. later, subjects conversed on the topic of television witb adult inter;iewers, of various sexes and races to wbom they were randomly assigned. A three-way interaction design accommodated the three social distance factors, and SDSD attitude =ore * were correlated with sea * length of communication unit and us