“Divven't Write That,Man”: the influence of Tyneside dialect forms on children's free writing

The issue of the use of Standard English in writing, and the influence of non‐standard dialects on pupils’ ability to write in Standard English, has gained renewed prominence with the publication of a number of reports leading up to the advent of the National Curriculum in English. This article analyses the free writing of a group of 11 year‐olds in an inner‐city school in Newcastle upon Tyne in terms of the extent to which it conforms to Standard English writing conventions. The influence of non‐standard dialect on performance in writing has been found to be relatively minor; many of the children plainly do have difficulties, but they are more frequently related to difficulties in mastering aspects of the writing system itself than to bi‐dialectalism.