An Introductory Examination of Speech Disfluencies in Spanish–English Bilingual Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter During Narratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-141
Author(s):  
Cristina Rincon ◽  
Kia Noelle Johnson ◽  
Courtney Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Diagnostic Information ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Developmental Stuttering ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency and type of speech disfluencies (stuttering-like and nonstuttering-like) in bilingual Spanish–English (SE) children who stutter (CWS) to SE children who do not stutter (CWNS) during narrative samples elicited in Spanish and English to provide further diagnostic information for this population and preliminary data toward an expansion of this study. Method Participants included six bilingual SE children (three CWS, three CWNS) ranging in age from 5 years to 7;5 (years;months) and recruited from the surrounding Houston, Texas area. Participants provided a narrative sample in English and Spanish. The frequency of speech disfluencies was tabulated, and mean length of utterance was measured for each sample. Results Results indicate that both talker groups exceed the diagnostic criteria typically used for developmental stuttering. Regardless of the language being spoken, CWS participants had a frequency of stuttering-like speech disfluencies that met or exceeded the diagnostic criteria for developmental stuttering that is based on monolingual English speakers. The CWNS participants varied in meeting the criteria depending on the language being spoken, with one of the three CWNS exceeding the criteria in both languages and one exceeding the criteria for percentage of stuttering-like speech disfluencies in one language. Conclusion Findings from this study contribute to the development of more appropriate diagnostic criteria for bilingual SE-speaking children to aid in the reduction of misdiagnoses of stuttering in this population.

Some cases of linguistic interference in Bulgarian in English-Bulgarian bilingual children and english native speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language

Proglas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliyana Dimitrova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
Children's Speech

he study examines some linguistic errors in the process of learning Bulgarian by Bulgarian-English bilingual children and by native English speakers who study Bulgarian as a second language. The emphasis is on some typical interference errors which are common (identical) for both the bilingual children’s speech and the speech of native English speakers learning Bulgarian as a second language. Based on the analyzed aberration corpus, the opinion we give is that many of the processes taking place during the acquisition of the Bulgarian language are the same for both bilingual children with English and native English speakers.

Polish–English bilingual children overuse referential markers: MLU inflation in Polish-language narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 014272372093376
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Otwinowska ◽  
Marcin Opacki ◽  
Karolina Mieszkowska ◽  
Marta Białecka-Pikul ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Dp Structure ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Cross Language

Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of referential markers by Polish–English bilingual children and Polish monolingual children. Using the LITMUS-MAIN picture stories, the authors collected speech samples of Polish–English bilinguals raised in the UK ( n = 92, mean age 5;7) and compared them with matched Polish monolinguals ( n = 92, mean age 5;7). The analyses revealed that the bilinguals’ mean length of utterance (MLU) in Polish was significantly higher than that of the monolinguals because the bilinguals produced significantly more referential markers (especially pronouns) which inflated their MLU. The authors posit that the non-standard referentiality used by the bilinguals in Polish is caused by cross-language transfer at the syntax–pragmatics interface. When producing narratives in Polish, Polish–English bilinguals overuse referential markers as cohesive devices in their stories, which is not ungrammatical, but pragmatically odd in Polish. Bilinguals tend to do this because they are immersed in English-language input, rich in overt pronouns. Thus, in the process of realizing the surface features of the Polish DP they partly rely on an underlying English DP structure.

Stop consonant productions of Korean–English bilingual children

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUE ANN S. LEE ◽  
GREGORY K. IVERSON
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Voice Onset Time ◽  
Onset Time ◽  
Stop Consonant ◽  
Developmental Period ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Stop Consonants ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
English Bilingual

The purpose of this study was to conduct an acoustic examination of the obstruent stops produced by Korean–English bilingual children in connection with the question of whether bilinguals establish distinct categories of speech sounds across languages. Stop productions were obtained from ninety children in two age ranges, five and ten years: thirty Korean–English bilinguals, thirty monolingual Koreans and thirty monolingual English speakers. Voice-Onset-Time (VOT) lag at word-initial stop and fundamental frequency (f0) in the following vowel (hereafter vowel-onset f0) were measured. The bilingual children showed different patterns of VOT in comparison to both English and Korean monolinguals, with longer VOT in their production of Korean stop consonants and shorter VOT for English. Moreover, the ten-year-old bilinguals distinguished all stop categories using both VOT and vowel-onset f0,whereas the five-year-olds tended to make stop distinctions based on VOT but not vowel-onset f0. The results of this study suggest that bilingual children at around five years of age do not yet have fully separate stop systems, and that the systems continue to evolve during the developmental period.

The production of referring expressions in oral narratives of Chinese–English bilingual speakers and monolingual peers

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Chen ◽  
Jianghua Lei
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Referring Expressions ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Chinese And English

This study evaluates the extent to which the production of referring expressions such as noun phrases and pronouns to fulfill various discourse functions in narratives of Chinese–English bilingual children matches that of their monolingual peers in each of the two languages. Spoken narratives in English and Chinese were elicited from 30 9-year-old participants from each of the three groups: Chinese–English bilinguals and their monolingual peers in each of the two languages using the wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Narrative analysis focused on the referring expressions that are used to introduce, re-introduce, and maintain reference to story characters in the narratives. Results show that (1) monolingual Chinese and English speakers differed significantly in the preferred referring expressions for the discourse functions; (2) the Chinese–English bilinguals differed from their monolingual peers in the distribution of referring expressions for referent introduction in English and re-introduction in Chinese; and (3) bilinguals resembled their monolingual peers in their differentiated use of referring expressions for referent maintenance in each of the two languages. These results suggest that the patterns of production of referring expressions in discourse by bilingual speakers may be unique, and fall in between those by their monolingual peers in each of the languages.

scholarly journals Production of Spanish Grammatical Forms in U.S. Bilingual Children

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 975-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisa Baron ◽  
Lisa M. Bedore ◽  
Elizabeth D. Peña ◽  
Samantha D. Lovgren-Uribe ◽  
Amanda A. López ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Direct Object ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Relative Difficulty ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Grammatical Morphemes ◽  
Object Clitics ◽  
English Dominant ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Purpose The purpose of this analysis was to understand how grammatical morpheme production in Spanish for typically developing Spanish–English bilingual children relates to mean length of utterance in words (MLUw) and the extent to which different bilingual profiles influence order of grammatical morpheme acquisition. Method Participants included 228 Spanish–English bilingual children ages 4;0–7;6 (years;months). Grammatical morpheme accuracy was evaluated using an experimental version of the Bilingual English–Spanish Assessment (Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, Goldstein, & Bedore, 2014). MLUw data were calculated from children's narrative samples. Production accuracy of plural nouns, singular and plural definite articles, preterite tense, imperfect aspect, direct object clitics, prepositions, subjunctive, and conjunctions was calculated and analyzed as a function of MLUw in Spanish. Level of accuracy on these forms was compared for Spanish-dominant and English-dominant groups. Results Accuracy was significantly associated with MLUw. The relative difficulty of Spanish grammatical morphemes is highly similar across different bilingual profiles. Conclusions There are common elements of Spanish that are easy (imperfect, plural nouns, singular articles, conjunctions), medium (plural articles, preterite), or hard (prepositions, direct object clitics, subjunctive), regardless of whether a child is a Spanish-dominant or English-dominant bilingual.

Constructively combining languages

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Endesfelder Quick ◽  
Elena Lieven ◽  
Ad Backus ◽  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Preference ◽  
Type Analysis ◽  
Objective Measurements ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Construction Type ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Abstract Language development in bilingual children is often related to differing levels of proficiency. Objective measurements of bilingual development include for example mean length of utterance (MLU). MLU is almost always calculated for each language context (including both monolingual and code-mixed utterances). In the current study, we analyzed the MLUs of three German-English bilingual children, aged 2;3–3;11 separately for the monolingual and code-mixed utterances. Our results showed that language preference was reflected in MLU values: the more children spoke in one language the higher the MLU was in that language. However, it was the mixed utterances that had the highest MLU for all three children. We support the results with a construction type analysis and suggest a potential usage-based explanation for these results based on individual differences in each child’s developmental inventory of words and constructions.

Cross-language comparisons of maze use in Spanish and English in functionally monolingual and bilingual children

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA M. BEDORE ◽  
CHRISTINE E. FIESTAS ◽  
ELIZABETH D. PEÑA ◽  
VANESSA J. NAGY
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Cross Language

Maze use appears to be higher in bilingual speakers than in their functionally monolingual peers. One question is whether this is due to the speaker's bilingual status or to the characteristics of the bilingual's language(s). Narratives for 22 Spanish–English bilingual 4–6-year-olds and their functionally monolingual age-matched peers were analyzed for maze use. Bilingual and functionally monolingual children used similar percentages and patterns of mazes. Children produced more grammatical revisions in Spanish than English. Bilingual and functionally monolingual children used similar grammatical revision strategies in Spanish and English. Children's maze use in each language was correlated with measures of language productivity such as mean length of utterance and number of words used in the sample. These findings suggest that the role of language is important in maze use and that bilingual children do not necessarily have greater levels of linguistic uncertainty than do their functionally monolingual peers.

Phonological Skills in Predominantly English-Speaking, Predominantly Spanish-Speaking, and Spanish-English Bilingual Children

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian A. Goldstein ◽  
Leah Fabiano ◽  
Patricia Swasey Washington
Keyword(s):  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Phonological Skills ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose: There is a paucity of information detailing the phonological skills of Spanish-English bilingual children and comparing that information to information concerning the phonological skills of predominantly English-speaking (PE) and predominantly Spanish-speaking (PS) children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between amount of output (i.e., percentage of time each language was spoken) in each language and phonological skills in Spanish-English bilingual children and PE and PS children. Method: Fifteen typically developing children, ranging in age from 5;0 (years;months) to 5;5 (mean=5;2), participated in the study. The participants consisted of 5 PE speakers, 5 PS speakers, and 5 bilingual (Spanish-English) speakers. A single-word assessment was used to gather information on phonological skills (consonant accuracy, type and frequency of substitutions, frequency of occurrence of phonological patterns [e.g., cluster reduction], accuracy of syllable types [e.g., CV, CVC, CCV, etc.]), and type and rate of cross-linguistic effects. Results: The results indicated that there was no significant correlation between amount of output in each language and phonological skills either in the Spanish skills of PS children and Spanish-English bilingual speakers or in the English skills of PE children and Spanish-English bilingual speakers. In addition, there was no significant difference in segmental accuracy, syllabic accuracy, or percentage of occurrence of phonological patterns between either the Spanish skills of PS children and Spanish-English bilingual speakers or the English skills of PE children and Spanish-English bilingual speakers. Finally, the children showed a limited number of cross-linguistic effects. Clinical Implications: Results from this study indicate no link between parent estimates of language output and phonological skill and demonstrate that Spanish-English bilingual children will have commensurate, although not identical, phonological skills as compared to age-matched PS and PE children.

Classifying Disfluencies in Preschool- and School-Age Spanish–English Bilinguals Who Do Not Stutter: An Exploratory Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
Raúl Rojas ◽  
Farzan Irani
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Medium Effect ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Total Percentage ◽  
Narrative Production ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Purpose This exploratory study examined the language skills and the type and frequency of disfluencies in the spoken narrative production of Spanish–English bilingual children who do not stutter. Method A cross-sectional sample of 29 bilingual students (16 boys and 13 girls) enrolled in grades prekindergarten through Grade 4 produced a total of 58 narrative retell language samples in English and Spanish. Key outcome measures in each language included the percentage of normal (%ND) and stuttering-like (%SLD) disfluencies, percentage of words in mazes (%MzWds), number of total words, number of different words, and mean length of utterance in words. Results Cross-linguistic, pairwise comparisons revealed significant differences with medium effect sizes for %ND and %MzWds (both lower for English) as well as for number of different words (lower for Spanish). On average, the total percentage of mazed words was higher than 10% in both languages, a pattern driven primarily by %ND; %SLDs were below 1% in both languages. Multiple linear regression models for %ND and %SLD in each language indicated that %MzWds was the primary predictor across languages beyond other language measures and demographic variables. Conclusions The findings extend the evidence base with regard to the frequency and type of disfluencies that can be expected in bilingual children who do not stutter in grades prekindergarten to Grade 4. The data indicate that %MzWds and %ND can similarly index the normal disfluencies of bilingual children during narrative production. The potential clinical implications of the findings from this study are discussed.

Dynamic Assessment With Bilinguals: A Focus on Increasing Clinicians' Confidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda K. Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Dynamic Assessment ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Idea 2004 ◽  
Disabilities Education Act ◽  
Effective Dynamic ◽  
Education Act

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are obligated to judiciously select and administer appropriate assessments without inherent cultural or linguistic bias (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA], 2004). Nevertheless, clinicians continue to struggle with appropriate assessment practices for bilingual children, and diagnostic decisions are too often based on standardized tests that were normed predominately on monolingual English speakers (Caesar & Kohler, 2007). Dynamic assessment is intended to be a valid and unbiased approach for ascertaining what a child knows and can do, yet many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) struggle in knowing what and how to assess within this paradigm. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a clinical scenario and summarize extant research on effective dynamic language assessment practices, with a focus on specific language tasks and procedures, in order to foster SLPs' confidence in their use of dynamic assessment with bilingual children.

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