The problem of this investigation was to determine if: (1) there are differences between black eleventh grade students and white eleventh grade students in the ability to interpret proverbs, (2) either the socio-economic status of the student or the educational level of the student's parents has a significant effect on the ability to interpret proverbs, (3) there are differences between the two groups' (black, white) comprehension of specific proverbs. / The population was composed of 90 eleventh grade students; 33 black students and 57 white students. All students had met the criterion of functional literacy as defined by the Florida Statewide Assessment Test, Part II (Communications Skills Section). / The instrument used in this study was The Proverb Test developed by the researcher. The instrument was field-tested for reliability and validity. / Four hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis one stated that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of literate black eleventh grade students and literate white eleventh grade students in the ability to interpret proverbs. This hypothesis was tested, along with hypotheses two and three, in an analysis of covariates. The null hypothesis was rejected. / Hypothesis two stated that there is no significant difference between the mean scores on a test of proverb comprehension of subjects of different socio-economic levels. The null hypothesis was accepted. / Hypothesis three stated that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of subjects with parents of differing educational backgrounds on a test of proverb comprehension. The null hypothesis was rejected. / Hypothesis four stated that there is no difference between the scores of literate black eleventh grade students and literate white eleventh grade students on individual proverb items. This hypothesis was tested using a frequency table. A difference of 10% between the two groups in correctness of response was considered significant. The null hypothesis was rejected. / The conclusions from this study were: (1) that linguistic characteristics associated with race constitute a factor in the ability to understand and apply the common proverbs used in this study; (2) that family income is not a factor in an adolescent's ability to understand and apply common proverbs; (3) that educational level of the subject's parents is a factor in the ability to understand and apply the proverbs used in this study; (4) that there is a difference between the racial groups on individual proverb items. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-01, Section: A, page: 0155. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74373 |
| Contributors | FISHER, JUDITH TOUGAS., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 87 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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