The first important finding was the confirmation of the previously established
two-factor model of judgement. Second, relationships were found
between teacher ratings and the status and ethnicity of the children; thus,
low-status children were seen as more ethnic/non-standard, and were rated
less favourably on the confidence/eagerness dimension. Within this lowstatus
group, white children were seen most favourably. For middle-status
children, results were similar with regard to the ethnicity/non-standardness
dimension. However, on the confidence/eagerness dimension, black middleclass
children were rated slightly more favourably than were white children
(see Giles and Bourhis, 1976a), and both black and white children were
rated more positively than were the Mexican-American children. A third
finding was that the teachers' general stereotypes (of the groups overall)
correlated reasonably well with their evaluations of actual group members.
Williams suggests, then, that the tnore general teacher stereotypes may have
affected judgements made of individual children (and this, of course, is
exactly the problem referred to above). Fourth, predictions of children's
scholastic achievement were related to the speech evaluations. It is of
interest here that the ratings made by black and white teachers were
remarkably similar. This work by Williams has been discussed in some detail
here since it represents a series of investigations in which similar results have
emerged, and since it underlines once again the power of speech patterns to
influence teacher ratings specifically.