This dissertation provides a heuristic model for defining, analyzing, and exemplifying the artistic dimension of black English. Further, it offers a method of recognizing and evaluating this aspect of verbal behavior for the purpose of strengthening curriculum development and methods of instruction. After a review of the literature that deals with language theory and usage, a framework is developed from aesthetic analyses of language usage with which to assay language behavior, a framework that goes beyond the models available from linguistic theory. This framework forms one part of a "disclosure model" by which to describe the artistic dimension of black English. The model is completed by applying the framework to a discussion and analysis of samples of verbal events in black English. The data for this part of the study are taken from literary samples that employ black English dialogue and from previously published research on the dialect. Such verbal events as sounding, signifying, rapping, marking, monitoring, and fancy talk are considered in detail. Finally, the complete disclosure model is used to underscore the importance of understanding the artistic dimension of black English for curriculum assessment and development and for instruction. The heuristic model is applied to an analysis of existing curricula designed for speakers of black English at the elementary, junior, and senior high school, and college levels. The model is also applied to essays written by community college students, with respect to the instructional implications of a fuller recognition of the evidence of the artistic dimension in their verbal behavior. (Author/AM)